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

I appreciate that things are beginning to move on this and that some work has been done to quantify the impact and tighten up and streamline matters in a good way, but I should probably press the amendment because there is more to do.

I will say something before moving on to the general point. The Minister correctly agreed that, at a minimum, quality employment - this relief is not just about training, as current legislation refers to quality employment and training - is not just compliant with EU directives in the sector, but also with contract and employment law, the working time directive and so on. Does he further agree that the relief should be withheld where an employer is found to be in breach of those laws? It follows that he should. The relief says it should be conditional on these factors. If we find that employers are not applying contract law, they should not get the relief. That should be self-evident to a law-abiding party like Fine Gael. I am not joking. Unless there is a sense that quality employment has to be provided to get the relief, then there is room for slippage. Certainly, there are allegations that such is happening.

We need to put resources into establishing what is self-employment and PAYE, when it is appropriate to fall into one category rather than the other and so on. We need to determine whether there is bogus self-employment in the industry.

The Screen Industry Education Forum was good, but was any PAYE worker or trainee at it? As Deputy Pearse Doherty reminded us, one of the 11 recommendations was for a stakeholder industry forum. The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has indicated in principle that she is willing to take that recommendation. It has to happen in order that we can get the various groups together to air these issues and thrash them out. The whole industry will thrive and we will all be happy to put more money into it on the basis that we have clearly defined rules about what employment and training should look like. We will get buy-in from all stakeholders.

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