John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There were very happy guys. Two thatchers were employed. The Chair talked about the cultural dividend. To me, that was one of the obvious ones. My late mother was from west Kerry, which is still attracting tourists as a result of "Ryan’s Daughter", which was made 50 years ago. I do not know whether Deputy Boyd Barrett will be unhappy with bits and pieces of this yet, but he is right to raise workplace conditions.

I see a world that has opened up for filmmakers, who are young but not exclusively so, actors and everybody else associated with the industry. My eldest brother was in "Excalibur". Everybody remembers working as an extra on the set. The industry has developed well beyond that now. That guilds of professionals and trades in the film industry have been established is telling. Section 481 seems to have been critical in this regard. That is essentially what the delegates are saying. The industry would not and could not have survived without it. Without it, we would not be making movies here.

There are other cultural dividends, some of which I am not so happy about. I am not happy with the impact on Skellig Michael. I have seen the impact of "Star Wars" on little villages and in Dingle. It is a question of skills, whereby young people can leave school, get training and know they can have employment in the film sector in Ireland. It simply was not a reality heretofore; it was very nebulous.

Those are some of the points I wanted to make. I have two questions. Is there any potential in the film industry arising from Brexit, because Ireland, along with Malta in the European Union, is an English-speaking country?