Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for not being able to be here yesterday when Deputy Pearse Doherty moved my amendment. It is an important amendment in terms of the film industry, in particular. The amendment proposes that those working in the industry get the same terms and conditions that other actors and those working in the film industry, in particular, get across the European Union. There should be no position whereby those who are working in this field have lesser terms and conditions, especially in an industry which is heavily subsidised by the State and public. We should not expect workers to be asked to waive their rights to future payments because the industry here thinks it can be more profitable by squeezing writers, actors and the like.

In this State, Irish workers are contracted through a company in the North and work side-by-side on a film set with workers who are contracted in this State. There are two different conditions attached to that employment. American companies which are filming here managed to get a waiver during the recent strike because they provided the proper terms and conditions that the acting unions in America were happy with. However, Irish actors are on less favourable terms and conditions than those set out in America as being the lowest possible standard expected for actors.

At the end of the day, nobody is looking for 100% of the profit to go to actors and those working in the film industry. It is an industry and there is profit to be made. The owners of film companies will make a profit, but it should not be on the back of Irish workers. Irish Equity has set out its case. Equity in Ireland has been backed by Equity abroad and Pact, as well as by American Equity. This is quite a simple ask. There is a lot more wrong with section 481 we can go into detail in a later stage, but in the application of the section we should start to give greater protection to the creatives, as they are called, in particular actors and others working in the film industry. They are being asked to do something which I would have regarded as being illegal, but I was told it was not, namely, to sign away their future ability to get payments for repeats and so on.

Some of this goes to the core of why there is an actors' strike in America. Given our history in terms of the arts, we should be in front of the curve rather than behind it on this. That is why I have proposed this amendment.