Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 17 January 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Arts Sector Funding: Discussion

1:30 pm

Ms Orlaith McBride:

I think we should not do it through an independent audit or an inspectorate process. It should be built into the culture of the organisation. For example, in the spring we will provide a series of workshops to arts organisations around the country because we want to ensure the best policies and procedures are in place to protect their workers against any kind of discrimination, bullying or harassment. Working with organisations to ensure that that is built into the culture of the organisation would be much more effective than using an inspectorate-type process to ensure that is in place. Building it in from the outset is the piece that is really important because that is the bit then that will reach people in an organisation who may be experiencing something that is unpleasant and want to bring it to someone's attention. That is the process that we will implement in spring 2018.