Ms Deirdre Donaghy:

If there is a finding that something is contrary to employment law, obviously that is something that should not be happening. I do not think the findings should be taken on their own as being indicative of a problem across the entire industry. I cannot extrapolate from that, as the situation has to be looked at, but what we have always said and what has always been clear is that the industry does work on a project-to-project basis. There is nothing in itself that is wrong with somebody having a fixed-term contract. However, employment law provides that if you have someone on successive fixed-term contracts, that brings with it more rights. As we have always said, that applies in the film industry to the same extent as it applies in any other industry. It is not special or better or worse in that way. The rights always apply. There may be instances where people are working and when they move from project to project, they may be moving from production company to production company as well, in which case the work is more episodic in nature, but if there are instances where people are working for the same production company there is the potential in employment law for that to be seen as linked. That is something that we have had an understanding of, and it has been established that employment law applies equally to the film sector as it does to any other sector.