Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for not being here earlier as Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell was kind enough to point out. I am also not a member of the joint committee, although I do attend as often as I can. I thank the Chairman for accommodating me. I was on the picket line all morning for the nurses' strike. That is why I was late. If I go over ground that has been covered, I apologise.

When I read the letter from the signatories, I was delighted that the Abbey Theatre was being discussed at a national level and that everything about it was open for discussion. To me, that is a good start, whatever one may think about the different sides and angles of the debate. I was also delighted that the precarious position of theatre actors, theatre performers and theatre makers was being highlighted because, to me, we should all be able to unite on it as a matter of serious concern because it is a big problem. At the same time, I was sad because I thought different parts of the theatre community were having a crack at each other. I would like to see them unite in addressing these serious concerns for those who make theatre if they cannot survive and need work coming up Christmas and do not have it because presented productions have been brought here.

I see this as the result of a drift over decades towards a neoliberal model for the arts. We have moved from a situation where there were theatre companies, some security and training in-house to one where it is completely precarious. I would like everybody to comment on what they think about this. We have had a similar debate about the film industry. One side of the debate says that is just the way it is, that it is nonsense and pie in the sky to think we can go back to a time when there was security of employment for those involved in the arts, film or theatre. I do not agree with that view, but many seem to think that is just the way it is now. I would like the delegates to comment on the issue.

I would particularly like the delegates to comment on the issue in the light of a conversation I had with a friend, who is an opera singer, who found a job in a theatre in Germany last year. She was amazed at her experience there and I was amazed to hear about it because it contrasts starkly with the sentiments expressed by the signatories about their situation, theatre performers and so on who had a meeting before Christmas in Capel Street and came here last week. They said they were in a totally precarious situation, that they were at the top of the game and that they could not pay the rent, that they did not know if they would have work the following week and that they needed to get out of the country or drop out of what they were doing. I then talked to my friend who had just found a job as an opera singer in a theatre. She said it was amazing, that she got 6 weeks holidays, sick pay and holiday pay, that she would have security of employment if she was there for longer than a year or two, that she basically would have a job for life if she wanted it and would receive a pension. I wondered if we could have that here and if we should not have it. Is the battle between the different sides taking place because we have accepted that it is impossible? Will we end up fighting over the crumbs, the crumbs being who will get to be on the Abbey Theatre stage?

Some of the actors and performers at the event on Capel Street said to me that the smaller companies had effectively been dismantled because of the cuts. That is the way they put it. Where the smaller theatre companies had some security in the past, it is now gone. There is no security and we are left with a scramble for who will be on the Abbey Theatre stage. Should we not all unite to say this is not good and that the levels of public support for the arts in this country are pathetic, by which I mean the levels of public funding because the percentage of GDP that goes to the arts is pathetic? Unless we address that issue, we will end up with a scramble over the crumbs.