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

NESC has done quite a lot of work on the area of good employment and what that should be. I have raised with the Taoiseach on a number of occasions, as have others and advocates in the areas of arts, film and cultural works, the distinct lack of good work. Film relief under section 481 contains a legal requirement for quality employment but, as NESC points out, that is not defined.

I will give the Taoiseach a couple of instances of where he needs to do something about this, because this is public money. I watched a video last night about a film worker who was protesting with other film workers outside the location of the shooting of "Vikings: Valhalla" by one of the biggest recipients of public money. This is somebody who worked in film for 40 years but is not working now on "Vikings: Valhalla". He had worked on all the previous "Vikings" series but is not working on this. He said he was blacklisted along with other workers because they had pointed out at an Oireachtas joint committee meeting in 2018 that all this public money was not leading to quality employment and training and there were virtually no proper jobs or any sort of job security or pension entitlements for workers in the film industry. These workers are being blacklisted from working.

People who have worked for decades are being blacklisted. Structurally, this is allowed because the producers tell the Government that it is a film-to-film arrangement and they cannot have security of employment. The Department with responsibility for arts and the Government allow this to continue when in fact, EU state aid rules insist that public funding for the arts must be linked to creating a permanent pool of secure employment. Even if it is film to film, there should be security, pension entitlements and recognition of the service of those working in the industry.

Similarly with performers on the "Enchanted" film, I pointed out to the Taoiseach this phenomenon of buy-out contracts whereby producers tell actors and performers that they will only get a job on the film if they agree to sell off their rights to what are called residuals, that is, royalties on future performances of that movie or film. This is something actors and performers used to enjoy and now producers are telling them they do not get to work unless they agree to a buy-out contract. And of course, the actors and performers want the job so they say, "Okay, I better accept that". It is absolutely wrong. Those buy-out contracts should not be allowed. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media needs to ensure we do not have blacklisting and do not have workers in that vulnerable position. They have a right to recognition of their service in the arts and cultural area. They should have some sort of security of employment so they cannot be made vulnerable to blacklisting or whatever it might be.

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