Ms Teresa Hannick:

We are part of FIA, the International Federation of Actors. There is significant concern. We have been very supportive of our colleagues in SAG-AFTRA and their dispute over the issue. The president of Irish Equity will shortly attend a seminar in Europe on the matter. There is huge concern about what this issue will mean. There is a difficulty for actors, particularly in this country, and in the context of how different agreements are transposed, regarding talent being brought to the screen and the residuals actors will get in the future. I read somewhere that the guy who played the character of Charlie Bucket in the original motion picture “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” still gets $500 a year in residual payments many years after that film was made. Residual payments are very important for a lot of actors because of the precarious nature of the work. Residual payments are very important as actors can work for a long time. Not everybody is a Cillian Murphy. This is especially important in Ireland, which is a small country. Production companies in this country put huge pressure on artists to sign away their residual payment, which is an income gone. Next is the problem of what will happen to the industry if artificial intelligence becomes the norm. We would follow what other unions do concerning these issues.