Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media

Key Priorities and Legislation of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media: Discussion

Photo of Catherine MartinCatherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. As he indicated, the current iteration of Creative Ireland comes to an end shortly. My officials are preparing proposals which seek to extend the programme, in particular the creative communities via local authorities, which I will shortly bring to Cabinet. The work of Creative Ireland in increasing access to creative opportunities for young people has been impactful and will continue.

On the creative industries, the Creative Ireland programme consulted extensively with industry bodies, businesspeople, practitioners and academics in the field of design-based digital creative and content creation sub-sectors and with other Departments, agencies and enterprise partners. A roadmap for the creative industries was drafted in 2020, as the Senator will know. However, the Covid-related issues have been prioritised over the past year. With a view towards economic recovery, discussions are again under way concerning how best to finalise and implement the draft roadmap.

Comhaltas has committed to the area of dignity and equality in the context of the recent launch of its results and in regard to Speak Up. We are doing a lot of work to reinforce the importance of dignity at work for the creative sectors. For example, we have worked extensively with, and funded, the Irish Theatre Institute, ITI, survey and report on bullying and harassment survey. The ITI will be funded to continue its work, as a starting point in regard to the findings of the survey. It will develop a code of behaviour that organisations can adopt and, in doing so, declare their commitment to provide a safe and dignified workplace. The code will be accessible online and will include a register that organisations and individuals can formally sign.

A dignity in the workplace toolkit will be developed for arts organisations and individuals. It will contain comprehensive information on supports and resources for independent workers. This will provide a suite of training tools, starting with bystander training and intimacy co-ordination, and incorporate behaviour modules onto all arts-related accredited courses. It will expand existing resources, including access to counselling, human resources, mediation, and legal consultation, free of charge, to artist art workers. In this area, Minding Creative Minds, which is funded by my Department, has been providing an exemplary service since 2020. We will be developing arrangements for confidential reporting of harmful behaviours without fear of reprisal; build cross-sectoral support for change; continue research in this area; and, as committed to at the launch of the survey, commit to further follow-up service so that we can monitor the success of our actions.

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