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

I genuinely welcome the progress and the engagement but I am keen that we make this watertight. One question I want to ask is whether sanctions will be applied. I have the details of one of the cases to which the Minister's attention has been drawn. It involves a ruling on four or five items of legislation. A complaint was made by a trainee assistant film director to the Workplace Relations Commission against Christchurch Productions. In all cases, the production company was found to be in breach and a fine was imposed. I have been informed that fine has never been paid. As I understand, the producer behind the company is still getting section 481 tax relief. If this is the case, what is the point of having these rules and regulations? What is the point of having conditions attached to film relief if we continue to give it out? I know the Minister is examining this but we need to move to a situation where it is made absolutely clear to these producers that they will not get a cent more of public money unless they comply with the law. There should be a serious question over whether they get any money if they have been shown to be in breach. I do not understand why this would not happen.

Something that needs to be clarified is the relationship between the producer company that gets the money and the special purpose vehicle, SPV, because often the producers will state the SPVs have nothing to do with them and they are not the employer and have no obligations. When they try this line of argument, the Minister needs to state that if they are in receipt of money from the Government, they are responsible for the employees.

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