Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply.

Is the Minister of State satisfied? In a certain sense, responsibility for this area really lies with the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and my original question was, in fact, to that Department although the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, is answering it. I do not have a problem with that.

Say a young person has just recently started his or her professional work having graduated from college and is now a film maker, is putting on shows or whatever. Inevitably, as arts workers that person is highly likely to be self employed over a lengthy period. I am not aware that there is any general strong system of information that would seek to make him or her aware of responsibilities under the vetting legislation, for example in any curriculum of any third level college. People might start out, for instance, doing small productions, small films and so on. I think it really is necessary to have a system of strong communication.

I know the Arts Council seeks to have general information for arts organisations in respect of their obligations over a range of things including, for instance, bullying and harassment. We have unfortunately heard of those kinds of cases in recent times in the Irish theatre.

Would the Minister consider putting a broader campaign in place to advise parents whose children may become involved in this area? It is a very exciting thing for a child or maybe for the parent to do, to be involved in film and the arts. Particularly in the context of the Government spending a lot of money on strategic communications there ought to be plenty of budget available to do this.

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