Ms Mary Nash:

I was just looking at one of my graphs. In 2022, open hiring practice was in operation on 78% of productions. Screen Ireland's training acknowledges some challenges with regard to the lack of knowledge on how production companies can approach and support under-represented outreach communities. It acknowledges the sector needs to promote the industry as a wholly inclusive career workplace. These points are addressing the intermittent nature of employment. With regard to the outreach areas, community perception can often see that the sector is a closed shop and the who-you-know approach is the only access point.

These things are recognised by screen training sectors. Part of the discussion this morning was about how we get past the who-you-know approach and make the industry a totally inclusive and diverse industry. Continuously run unconscious-bias training and diversity-inclusion training were also mentioned. All of these will, it is hoped, address the issues whereby people feel they are excluded from the industry for one reason or another.