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

I thank all members who have commended the work of our Department but the people who deserve credit here are the women who have spoken up so bravely. It was striking. The bravery was remarkable during my engagement with them and I commend them. Things are changing because they spoke up and engaged with us. I mention also the survey done by the Irish Theatre Institute. I want to take a moment to praise these women and commend them on their bravery. I have heard their voices as they bravely told their stories of discrimination and sexual harassment and that is why we are absolutely committed to it. It is a priority.

Senator Warfield asked whether we were as rigid as the Arts Council. It is worked into our service level agreement so that absolutely is the case. I do not have the numbers here for those who accessed Minding Creative Minds services but we can come back to him on that.

On further surveys, the speak up survey was really the first of its kind. It was made possible because it was funded in its entirety by the Department and carried out by the Department's partners. Since the publication of the report in November, it has been my intention that further surveys will be carried out in line with recommendation five of the report. I will provide funding accordingly. We are already discussing the next round of research.

One of the issues will be the marketing of the survey. My officials will be proactive in seeking the assistance of resource organisations such as the national campaign for the arts, in encouraging as many people in the arts and creative sectors to complete the survey.

I see the potential in the basic income for the arts pilot as a research project. It might throw up some interesting data on this because it will give artists the independence to say "No". That might come out of the research. They might say they were not comfortable working in a particular area. We can then delve deeper into that. There is potential in the basic income that might reach out to more people in the sector. I think they were all the issues.