Ms Aoife O'Sullivan:

I do not know about individual cases in the Labour Court but I will reiterate a good news story this week about the collective agreement struck this week on 7 December in which the employers and employees came to an agreement after three years. I was on the negotiating committee and I know how difficult it was. Some 83% of SIPTU workers voted in favour of it and were very happy with it. The guilds were strongly represented at the negotiation table. It includes a transferable pension, which is ground-breaking in the industry. From my experience and that of most of the producers I know, employer and employee relations are extremely important. It is a small industry. We all work together all the time. We work together on a continuing basis but it is a project by project business. That is the way it works. One cannot have continuous employment when one is going from film to film or TV drama to TV drama. Usually the directors of the designated activity companies, DACs, are the same as the directors of the producer company. The reason we have to set up the DACs is because that is required under section 481 legislation. We are compliant with Revenue and with the Departments on that. We have no choice in the matter. Also, other good news is that the WRC did an audit of the industry, which was published in August of this year, and it had very positive findings. It recommended an agreement be reached between employers and employees, which was reached this week. It said we should concentrate on skills development, which we very much are through Screen Skills Ireland, and that we should continue the strong relationship with the guilds, which we are doing. All those boxes are ticked. I do not see any ongoing issue, to be honest. From the industry’s point of view, it is working extremely well.