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

The substantial section of the Bill is section 1, which spells out the increasing loan capacity. The amendments we hoped to move, which were ruled out of order, provided that there would be a certain conditionality on that. We agree with section 1 but we want conditions put on it. While for the purposes of pressing those conditions, they have been ruled out of order, it is entirely in order to say that the decision of the Dáil to expand the loan capacity of the Irish Film Board should be conditional. I seriously appeal to the Minister and the Department to examine the conditions relating to this significant public funding for the film industry, particularly in the areas of the extent to which the loans and grants that are given out by the Irish Film Board are helping to develop the industry and to create quality employment and training in it. That should be the point of public funding. In 2016, this stream of funding resulted in €12 million being distributed in loans.

It varies from €12 million to €16 million depending on the year. That is a lot of money. In addition, there is the section 481 tax relief that comes via Revenue. I was just at a meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight at which this matter was also discussed. Last year, that tax relief amounted to €100 million. There is €100 million in tax relief and €12 million to €16 million coming through the Irish Film Board. Most of this money goes to approximately 12 film production companies, with the bulk of it going to about seven of those. It is very good that the State is funding the Irish film industry. I want to see more funding for that industry, whether it is via Revenue or through direct grant aid. However, we need to ask what we are getting out of it. At the meeting of Committee on Budgetary Oversight, the representatives from the Parliamentary Budget Office, who are independent people, stated there is a real problem with us evaluating public expenditures. We allocate money every year but we are not so good at scrutinising what we get in return.

In the film industry, what is the result of €300 million of public funding via the Irish Film Board and probably another €1 billion through section 481 tax relief? What tangible results do we get for that level of public investment? Even though most of the money has gone to approximately 12 companies, those companies employ almost nobody. There may be a few administrative positions in some of the bigger ones, but there are no jobs. What film infrastructure does the State own? The answer is almost none. Even though we finance these companies, they have not created any long-term employment and the State owns virtually no infrastructure. That is a problem. I want to see the investment, but where is the net result?

I just came from a meeting of actors and performers which, unfortunately, coincided with this debate and at which the topic is that they are the working poor, living a completely precarious existence. That echoes some of the stuff I heard from the film industry. This is another area of the arts where the performers are saying they are living in dirt poverty. A dancer who is very prominent on the international stage is living on €12,000 a year. She asked what kind of future she has. At the age of 20, 21 or 22, she might have been happy to sustain that for a while, living with six people in a small apartment, but where is her future? The answer is that she has no career progression, which is a problem. For all this public money, there has to be a career progression and some sort of future for people who work in the industry.

Although the amendments have been ruled out of order, I appeal to the Minister. I welcome the great engagement in recent weeks by Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners. I have brought workers in with me to meet officials. That is a great improvement and positive signals are coming from the Government. This is not a criticism of the Government, but we need to address the issue of employment in the industry.

It would be wrong for the film industry to run purely on a for-profit or commercial viability basis because we need to subsidise the arts. However, let us consider the figures for the loans being given out. In 2007 €16 million in loans was given out. The amount recouped from these loans was €1.1 million. The following year €17 million was given out and €1.3 million was recouped. In the year after that €15 million was given out and was €738,000 was recouped. It is pretty much the same picture each year, with less than 10% of the money recouped. A lot of money is being loaned out with very little coming back. One could say that this is acceptable because we need to subsidise the film industry. However, how much are we getting back in tax revenue from the sector? Is that maximised? Much of the employment is precarious, with people being forced to work as contractors, freelancers and so on. They are not getting direct employment and there is resistance from the production companies to employ people directly as PAYE workers. Not only do they face an existence where they do not know from job to job if they have a future in the industry and are very vulnerable, but if they look for their rights, ask for PAYE employment, try to get overtime rates or anything like that, they will be told they will not be coming back for the next production because they have asked about these things. That is bad for them but it is also bad for Revenue because, generally speaking, it would get a considerable amount of money from PAYE employment. The Revenue Commissioners would get a higher yield of tax through PAYE than they tend to get when the whole thing is freelance and self-employed.

We need to link this public funding more closely with creating quality employment and training. The workers need career progression and a properly structured system of training. That training needs to be linked to trainees on productions and not just training in the abstract. The Irish Film Board runs some courses, but what is the relationship between that and trainees working on productions? People are categorised as trainees, but it is never clear when they cease to be a trainee and become a qualified professional.

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