Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. It has been very interesting to listen to our guests’ contributions and I congratulate all of them as a group for the “noise”, for want of a better term, they have made. It has been very cohesive and constructive, they have achieved a great deal and have had many wins particularly in respect of the support schemes. I was delighted to see the €25 million that was allocated for the live performance support scheme because I saw some of the beautifully produced and very creative work that was done in some of our most famous live venues. They were able to do this with €5 million so I cannot wait to see what they will do with €25 million.

Turning to Mr. Fitzgerald first and to EPIC, I am aware that the challenges that are being faced by some of the sound and light suppliers has been touched upon already. I understand that there are up to approximately 300 businesses potentially caught in that bracket where they cannot avail of the CRSS because they are not front-facing or deal with the public and because of that they cannot get Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SPCI, loans. This has already been touched upon by him and although I do not have a particular question I express my 100% support to him on this point and I hope that discussions with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment go well and that he gets a resolution to that issue.

I have a question that I would ask him to deal with at the end on the talent loss. There was a situation where many of our most talented events professionals went to the UK because that was where the work was. We were then able to create a situation where the work was actually here in Ireland. Is there a fear now that that will flip back and we will lose all of that talent to the UK?

I thank Mr. Finn for his comments. We have spoken before about the implementation of the copyright directive and I am 100% behind him in that regard. It is galling to see the social media giants profiteering from the incredibly hard work and talent of our artists.

I wish to raise a concern expressed by some venue owners in my constituency regarding the talk of a flat-rate charge by IMRO for live streaming. I understand a public consultation process is ongoing on that issue. Can the witnesses from IMRO update us on where that consultation stands?

Will Mr. Sharpe elaborate on how a reopening might look? All the business owners, artists, engineers and others in the sector crave the certainty that is not there at the moment. Has Mr. Sharpe had any consultation with public health advisers as to what percentage of the population must be vaccinated before we can see scenes here such as those we saw in Barcelona? We are very far away from the scenes we saw in New Zealand but what is happening there and elsewhere must give us some hope and positivity that there is a future for these types of events.

I am aware that in talking to each other here today, we are, in effect, preaching to the converted. I would love to have the people here who have the answers and could potentially put the provisions in place that would help the witnesses. I would be grateful to have answers to my questions, starting with the one to Mr. Fitzgerald about talent loss.