Mr. Shane Dunne:

The short answer is “No”. What we have at the moment is a ban on events involving more than 5,000 people up to 31 August and we have the roadmap which just runs to 20 July, which I believe allows for up to 100 people indoors and 500 people outdoors at that point. The outdoor industry, be it festivals or stand-alone events, is very much dependent on the social distancing requirement reducing from 2 m to 1 m. I do not think we have any opportunity at 2 m. At 1 m, and with these supports in place, we think we can look at some outdoor shows. These are hypothetical discussions but at 1 m, we can potentially do a show for 3,000 or 4,000 people where we would normally have one for 20,000 people. Outdoors, one has that ability but unfortunately, in the Abbey, the Olympia or the 3 Arena, we cannot move the walls. The capacity is restricted and that is it.

I mentioned earlier that we might address insurance another day but now that it has been brought up, I wish to mention one thing. The Deputy noted that only one insurer is looking after funfairs. In the last couple of years, we have seen a number of insurance companies in Ireland get out of the event industry. They do not cover it any more. We are being insured or underwritten by companies internationally. We are finding this year that events that thought they were covered for cancellation insurance, and are covered for cancellation insurance as far as their policy goes, are not being paid their cancellation insurance. This is going to be a bigger issue in the longer term when we do reopen. To give a very quick example, something like the Gaiety pantomime has an upfront investment of about €1 million. The show would normally start around July with set builds and costume, with actors coming in from August. If we get to the end of November or start of December when the pantomime starts and there is a cancellation, be it due to a localised lockdown or a cast member coming down with Covid, there is no insurance to cover that. It will be the same for artists touring, venues and all of the theatres. We need a plan for that and we need the insurance companies to be pulled into line by the Government, if the Deputies will excuse the strong language. Otherwise, we are facing a long-term issue as regards covering it.

As part of that roadmap for theatres, we will need a derogation on social distancing on stage, such as many European countries have already brought in. There are beautiful moments in theatre. People kiss. They cannot do that from 2 m away or 1 m away. This will have to be changed.

Insurance is a longer-term problem, but it is one that we need to start working on straight away.