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

I acknowledge that the Minister engaged, listened and took action. That action has brought some improvements and it has put a bit more pressure on. However, to be honest, what the Minister is being told by Screen Producers Ireland is not the truth. He needs to look beyond it. I have quoted what its CEO said in a witness statement this year in the Labour Court. She does not just say “this person was not an employee” or a recipient of section 481. She goes on to say that nobody could be. I want the Minister to absorb the significance of her statement that nobody could be.

They are taking money from the taxpayer on the basis that they are going to provide quality employment and training, and then they say they could not possibly be the employer. As a result, they try to prevent the case from ever being heard. The Minister has to issue an instruction that this is not an acceptable position for recipients of this relief to take. They hide behind the DAC and even though it is the producer companies that gets the money, they deny that they have an employment relationship with individuals who worked on those productions. Then all the undertakings mean nothing. The producers are saying that if they had any employees, they would absolutely vindicate their rights under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 or the working time directive but they do not have any employees so it does not matter if none of those rights is vindicated because it is nothing to do with them. That is what is happening and certain people do not want the boat rocked. These same companies are getting money year after year so of course they are telling the Minister it is okay. He needs to look beyond that objectively at what protections workers have to ensure their rights are actually being vindicated.

See this speech in context