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

I tried to explain the reason for this amendment last night. In response, the Minister pretty much said that I was painting a very grim picture of the Irish film industry and that I had not acknowledged that we produce wonderful films. I will respond to that first because it is important. Anybody can look at the transcript of what I said yesterday and will see that I began my contribution by arguing at length that we need to put more money into arts and culture, including film, and that we are undervaluing the extraordinary talent we have in this country and our incredible tradition, unparalleled for a country of our size, of poetry, art, writing, acting, theatre, film, music and so on. I said all of that so it is unfair to suggest for a moment that I do not recognise this. It is quite the contrary. The reason I am putting this forward is because I recognise and greatly value the creative people we have in this country and want to see arts and culture valued more. I want to see more investment in them. I believe there is a lot more potential there. However, critical to that is truly valuing the people who make those films.

The Minister said that I should "come up with a better metaphor" than the one I used, which was that the designated activity companies, DACs, are mushrooms that pop up and then disappear. He suggested that they flower. Whether it is a mushroom or a flower, the issue is the rights of performers and actors over their performances, the contribution they have made to a film, their writings and so on. All sorts of contributions go into making these flowers of cultural endeavour. As it was put to me this morning as I chatted to a member of Irish Equity, the DAC structure separates the performer, the artist or the creative from the benefit of his or her endeavour and creative ability. That is how he described it to me. That is exactly what the DAC structure does.

It ensures that creatives do not benefit from their input into the making of a beautiful, wonderful thing. That is a problem. I hope the Minister recognises this if it is true. As Irish Equity representatives stated at the hearings of the Committee on Budgetary Scrutiny, it is contrary to the EU directive on copyright. The directive implies that buy-out contracts should be the exception, not the rule, and that it is critical and a requirement that the creatives, performers and actors get equitable remuneration for their artistic contribution and intellectual property. They are not getting it. Under contracts in the UK, including Northern Ireland, and other jurisdictions, they do get it. That has to be addressed. Those affected say that the DAC structure facilitates what is happening. When all this is being funded with public money, the Minister should be concerned about ensuring the creatives' rights are vindicated. They are not being vindicated.

The people the Minister is talking to, the screen producers, are happy with this situation because the rights are being signed over to them. The intellectual property rights of the artists, performers and others are being signed over to the producers. Needless to say, Screen Producers Ireland is saying this is great and good for the producers. It is not surprising that Screen Ireland believes it is acceptable. That is because it is largely populated by producers. There is a revolving door involving producers in Screen Ireland who are making movies funded by that organisation under section 481. It is a relatively small group.

A writer who emailed me described what is happening in scathing terms. He stated he has ultimately come to the conclusion that the Irish film industry is effectively a scam, a branch of the public sector that has craftily positioned itself to operate completely by its own rules and without any accountability to the taxpayer. He went on to provide details. I am only getting my head around all this because it is such a complex industry, given the input of writers, actors, performers, crew and so on. The writer's remarks are pretty scathing. He explained how by comparison with other jurisdictions, writers in Ireland are paid an absolute pittance for options on scripts. The scripts are sat on by producers, who do not try to obtain finance. A writer signs over the rights to his or her script to producers who sit on it, do nothing with it and pay next to nothing.

I could elaborate on some of the issues the writer who emailed me mentioned. Some of the headlines concern duplicity, low pay, vested interests, contracts being drawn up for writers by a particular firm of solicitors that I believe has a relationship with some of the key people inside Screen Producers Ireland.