Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is absolutely disgraceful that we have sold off the State's holding in Ardmore. We have fully privatised it to the benefit of a company which appeared like a mushroom. That is a feature of the film industry where the companies that receive all the State money appear like mushrooms and then disappear just as quickly. The culture committee has heard testimony from representatives of the workers in the film industry that they have no proper training or accreditation structure for trainees, no pensions and no continuity of employment, yet millions of euro are going into the film industry. Incredibly, in Ardmore itself - which will be run by the same CEO who is linked to Troy Studios to run it down - there are four stages sitting empty while public money is being used to finance the production of films in NAMA buildings that are completely unsuitable. In the case of the John Player building, it is riddled with asbestos, the toilets are absolutely revolting and the place is freezing. Why is there not more public oversight of that, rather than the Minister relinquishing the little bit of influence the State had over the industry in terms of Ardmore?

There should be more oversight, but instead the Minister has sold it without questions being asked about what is going on and whether Ardmore was being run down to the benefit of Troy in a situation which involved some of the land being put up for possible residential development. It is really not acceptable.

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