Ms Deirdre Donaghy:

I have a list that I could start with. I may have probably missed some of the questions along the way. In that context, I ask the Deputy to feel free to ask me again if I do not answer any of the questions.

I could not say if anyone has been refused a culture certificate because that is dealt with the by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The application goes to the Department, which then carries out the assessment. I know that officials from the Department have appeared before various committees to discuss this matter previously. The Department will be able to give the committee any data specifically around that.

When it comes to the issue of quality employment, it is one which we have discussed with the committee on many occasions over the years and we have been paying attention to the issues. We do not just listen to Screen Producers Ireland. In fact, it complains that we do not listen to its members enough. We have met with employee representative groups also and deal a great deal with Screen Ireland, which is the official body. There have been many changes over the past three or four years in order to try to ensure that we are substantiating that in the screen development aspect of it.

I know that the committee has received a submission from Screen Ireland that gives some of the detail around that but, essentially, back in 2019, the skills development aspect of it was much less well developed. It went around a system that for every X amount of credit you claimed, you had to have Y amount of interns or trainees. Queries were raised - and they were fair ones - as to how we ensure that someone will not be an intern or a trainee forever, that there is proper development and that people can make actually make progress through the industry. From 2019 onward, Screen Ireland has been progressively developing an entirely new process for that and is now focusing on skills development. It is not just interns or trainees; Screen Ireland is looking at skills development at every level. It is not just about getting a trainee in; it is also about getting a mid-level unit manager and training him or her up to be a head of unit. This is happening at all levels to show that the company involved is actually developing somebody’s career as it goes along.

When we split the credit in 2019, one of the benefits of that was that the application has to go in for the culture test before the application with the financial details goes through to Revenue, which can be further along in the process. One has to engage upfront on one skills’ development plan with Screen Ireland and with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. That is staggered because the bigger the production, the more you have to engage and the more detail you have to provide. In the case of a larger production, there is a compliance stage at the end of the production to ensure that this is signed off and that the company has met the criteria. The Department has sent through details to say that since April 2019, over 140 skills development plans have been submitted to Screen Ireland for approval and more than 1,500 skills participants have been tracked through those productions.

On a regional basis, because we also have a focus on trying to move those talent pools out of Dublin and Wicklow and around the country in a more broad way, we have the regional spend uplift.

If you are applying for the regional uplift, there have to be additional skills development participants for that to show that you are developing the talents in those areas. Since April 2019, Screen Ireland has had over 45 regional skills development plans, over 500 participants have been tracked and it is continuing to move forward. It has engagement now on higher and further education and training. There are new Springboard and traineeship programmes at institutions like the Technological University of the Shannon, the Atlantic Technological University and Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board and Screen Ireland is establishing five new talent academies across Ireland, in Wicklow, Limerick and Dublin and two in Galway. It is moving so far forward in that respect that it is the first to link this type of structured skills training to the film tax credit and other jurisdictions are now coming in to learn from Screen Ireland about what it is doing. The latest innovation being introduced towards the end of this year is a new digital skills tracking system, so there should be more transparency and accountability about what is there. I know Screen Ireland has sent-----