Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Brien and Ms Quinn. It is to be hoped that what they described will be an eye-opener for people. We all agree, as they do, that we want to see continued State support for film, the arts and culture but we want it to benefit performers, actors and crews. They are telling us that support is not doing as it should in respect of that.

To put it bluntly, and I asked this at a previous meeting, would the representatives agree we are in breach of the legislation regarding copyright? The way in which it is now being operated by producers means that we are quite simply in breach of copyright legislation and the similar directives from which that legislation flows - the witnesses can probably clarify that. There is a problem here with legal compliance, which is then seriously disadvantaging - I could probably use stronger words - performers from getting the value of the work they have done. One question I have in that regard is to ask the Irish Equity representatives to spell out the buy-out contract business and the pressure its members are put under to get work that means they have to, in many cases, in effect sign away their rights to their intellectual property, and the value of their performances as tied up in copyright and intellectual property. I suspect many people do not know this. Maybe they could elaborate a little on that point. I have a couple of other questions but maybe they could start with that.

Related to that, what do they think those working in the UK or other jurisdictions think about the conditions Irish Equity members have to endure here? Are they shocked when they encounter what is going on for its members here?