Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity speak about what is essentially a crisis in the arts, culture and entertainment industries. The Minister is correct that more than 35,000 people are employed across a range of professions. While much of this debate has focused on the front-of-house artists and performers, and rightly so, there is a panoply of people employed in these sectors, including producers, engineers, technicians, teachers, make-up artists, drivers, caterers, cleaners and administration staff. We should never forget that broad range of workers whose livelihoods are dependent on these industries.

There is also a lot of people who are not directly employed but whose livelihoods depends on large events, be they culture, arts, entertainment or sports. Taxi drivers are probably the most obvious that spring to mind. The €3.5 billion in revenue generated in our economy every year cannot be over-emphasised. The package of supports, particularly for certain sectors within this overall group of industries, is too small. Many of these workers are on low and average incomes. Some of the decisions, not taken by the Minister and her Department but by her colleagues, are having a disproportionate impact on these workers, including the cuts to the PUP and the wage subsidy schemes, lack of action, for example, on commercial rents or breaks for insurance policies for owners and renters of premises, stripping protections for those in the private rental sector and the failure to extend the mortgage payment holiday. These are compounding since because of the public health restrictions, necessary as they are, people cannot go to work.

The biggest problem for the people in the industry with whom I have spoken is the lack of a roadmap. Everybody knows that they cannot go back to work now but this is an industry which, in the main, operates 12 months ahead of the rest of us in terms of the planning of festivals, exhibitions, theatre performances, concerts, tours, etc.. The most frustrating thing for people involved in the industry is not only the lack of income support but the not knowing where they are going to be in six months or 12 months, not having clear targets and not having clear guidelines for where they may go. While the Government has developed its living with Covid plan, people are saying it is unclear to whom they go to get clarity on when they want to organise events of certain types or at certain stages. I urge the Minister not to deflect this to the task force to grapple with but for her and the Department to give industry some certainty and a roadmap and targets for the months ahead.

It gives me no pleasure to say this, but there has been a lot of angry reaction to the Minister's claim that the €5 million performance fund has been the product of consultation. What I am hearing is that the sector does not feel it is being consulted enough. I urge her, because I know it is her style as a politician, to engage with and listen to the people who will be recipients of this fund and future funds before final decisions are made.

To conclude, the budget is coming up. I know there are many demands and that the Minister is fighting with her colleagues for ever scarcer resources, but given the scale of this industry and its importance not just to the economic life of the State but also to the cultural and emotional well-being of people, I urge her to do everything she can to ensure this industry and its workers get every possible support in the future.

See this speech in context