Ms Karan O'Loughlin:

I am employed by SIPTU as the divisional organiser for the services division. Irish Equity and the film and entertainment section of the union sit under the umbrella of the services division and the arts and culture sector within that. Today I will present on behalf of Irish Equity and my colleague, Mr. Graham Macken, will present on behalf of the film and entertainment section of SIPTU. I will be happy to take questions on either presentation if the committee desires.

The Irish Equity group was established in 1949 to organise and represent actors in the Republic of Ireland with the objective of securing decent working conditions for actors. On 9 September 1979, the Irish Equity group merged with the then ITGWU, which is now SIPTU, and became the cultural division of the ITGWU. Currently, Irish Equity sits within the arts and culture sector of the services division of SIPTU and the day-to-day work is overseen by an executive committee of Irish Equity made up of members of Irish Equity who are elected annually at the AGM of Irish Equity.

Irish Equity has presented previously to the Joint Committee on Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the previous occasion being November 2017 to discuss bullying and harassment in the live performance sector of the arts. At that time the union made a number of recommendations to ensure that culture change is achievable and sustainable, including that there should be direct co-operation and engagement between Irish Equity, arts organisations and training bodies to develop and monitor best practice in the industry; that the Minister should encourage theatre organisations to establish a representative umbrella body that can engage with stakeholders collectively on industry matters; extending the cover of the protected disclosures legislation to cover reporting of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment; that drama schools and arts colleges should develop at least one module on dignity in the workplace and creating a positive workplace culture; and that all applicants for public funding should have to have good practice and policy in place as a prerequisite for access to such funding.

With regard to the film and TV sector, I will outline the main issues affecting performers. On the issue of bullying and harassment, it is interesting to note that the recent sexual harassment allegations in Ireland to date have related to the live performance sector with no evidence or allegations of sexual harassment having arisen from the film or TV sector here in the Republic. That does not mean that bullying and harassment issues do not exist within the sector which is why Irish Equity invited line managers, producers, directors etc. from the audiovisual sector to attend an industry seminar at the end of 2017 on bullying in the industry. The objective was to assist them with developing good practices and procedures in this regard. The seminar was jointly held with Screen Training Ireland, SPI, and the Irish Film Board, as previously discussed at this committee.

Sustaining careers and living conditions is the most difficult part for performers. The outstanding issues for actors in the industry relate strongly to their capacity to maintain themselves as performers and to have any kind of longevity in the industry. The barriers to this are mainly structural and the Government certainly has the capacity to deal with it. It is notable that these barriers also have a more significant effect on women performers.

The Government’s Culture 2025 framework policy document published in 2016 identifies seven pillars for priority, one of which is to foster creativity by examining existing systems and supports with a view to helping more people pursue sustainable careers in the cultural and heritage sectors. It is our considered opinion that achieving this objective means demonstrating meaningful commitment to the value of the arts in society and, consequently, the status of the artist.

In October 1980, the general conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, otherwise known as UNESCO, made a recommendation concerning the status of the artist which needs to be recognised. The recommendation specifically invites member states to promote and protect the status of artists by considering artistic activity, including innovation and research, as a service to the community. Member states should make it possible for them to enjoy the esteem necessary for the full development of their work and provide the economic safeguards to which artists are entitled as people actively engaged in cultural work. This includes the need to improve the social recognition of artists by according them the moral and material support required to remedy their difficulties. In practical terms, this means taking the necessary steps to see that artists enjoy the same rights as are conferred on others by national and international legislation in respect of employment and living and working conditions, and should see that self-employed artists enjoy protection as regards income and social security. For this to be meaningful, there would have to be special provision and recognition for artists at the level of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and Revenue.

Performers are one of the hardest working groups when it comes to seeking work as it is in their nature to be constantly seeking to create and perform. They seek work themselves, have agents seeking work on their behalf and create work through all manner of profit share and low-budget initiatives, but when it comes to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection they are treated poorly and disrespectfully and when it comes to Revenue they are treated harshly. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection does not take the acting profession seriously and frequently tries to force performers into non-artistic work. Even where performers undertake training to increase their suitability for various types of engagement, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection considers that they are not actively seeking work during this period and withdraws or refuses to pay jobseeker's benefit or protection.

Revenue consistently fails to acknowledge the genuine costs of staying in the profession when it comes to assessing genuinely incurred expenses. We need to develop some clear parameters around this to support and assist artists in pursuing sustainable careers in the cultural and heritage sectors as per priority No. 7 in the framework policy document.

The freelance nature of the work of actors also needs to be recognised so as to extend to them the same protections given to persons engaged on a contract of service. This is why Irish Equity has advocated and continues to advocate for the need to change the definition of to whom the employment legislation applies so as to say "worker", as it does in the Industrial Relations Acts, and not "employee", as it does in other workplace legislation.

Screen Training Ireland operates under the auspices of the Film Board and offers a comprehensive range of training courses for the industry. However, we would like to see these courses expanded to include training or upskilling for performers.

There exists a film and TV sector stakeholder forum that operates largely within the control of the Irish Film Board. This forum is not effectively used, however, and we would like to change this in favour of a jointly-led union and industry forum. This highlights the general global issues of concern of Irish Equity.