Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has stated this is a straightforward technical Bill which will have no impact on the Exchequer. That is because the funding to meet the extra loan capacity of €200 million will not come directly from the Exchequer. While I was not as involved as Deputy Boyd Barrett in the discussion in the past year about working conditions in the film industry, I have met workers in it to discuss the issue. The mind boggles when one hears a figure of 17,000 fill-time equivalents. However, from talking to workers on the ground, the actual experience totally contradicts that number. When I met several film industry workers, they pointed out that the Irish film and television industry was heavily funded by the taxpayer. The money is distributed to companies in the form of tax relief and by the Irish Film Board which gives and lends money to Irish production companies which never seems to be returned. They also informed me that money was given for feasibility studies for productions which might never take off. Who is accountable for the expenditure of all of this money?

Section 481 was included to create equality and fair employment in the film industry. Hoever, there seems to be little of it. Contractors have been brought in to undermine the terms and conditions of workers. Many of the contractors have been operating illegally for several years. Some of them facilitate the shadow economy and have gained a favoured position with production companies as they have done work at a cheaper rate. However, no checks have been carried out by the production companies to ascertain where taxpayers’ money has gone. There is also the major issue of individuals being bound to false trainee schemes for which there is no curriculum and no start, middle or end date.

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