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

Obviously, Martin Hayes is brilliant. The NCH has worked to overcome that perception and is very committed to doing so and to showcasing not just classical music but also contemporary music and projecting itself outwards. In this case the NCO and choir are projecting outwards that they exist, and that they and the concert hall are there for everybody. However, we need resources to do that. They should be given those resources to develop their audience and to ensure that as well as the classical repertoire, we are also constantly nurturing new contemporary music and ensuring it gets its opportunity for exposure.

As previous speakers have mentioned, there then follows the whole question of reaching out beyond the physical limits of the building to project out what goes on in the NCH and what the NSO and the various choirs do. They need to project those things out to communities and parts of the country that do not often get exposed to them. That again requires resources and support but they are also vital.

This is a good news story and very positive. However, we need be conscious of the lessons. For a period, there was a real possibility we might not have a National Symphony Orchestra. Let us remember these dangers exist if art, culture and music are seen as financial burdens rather than integral parts of our society. It is about our identity, the cohesion of our society, and what is truly valuable and worthwhile.

In that regard let us also extend out the lesson that we have learned from this episode, and in this case a positive final result for the NSO, to other areas of culture and heritage. I said this during the budget debate. I do not know if the Minister will have the chance to respond. Other musicians and performers who do not come under the NCH or the NSO were extremely disappointed with the budget. The Minister may be aware that the Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland, MEAI, which is part of a cross-party group that meets regularly in Leinster House campaigning for certain things prior to the budget, was extraordinarily disappointed with the budget.

In my contribution on the day of the budget, I noted that the overall budget for arts and culture is down by 5% this year, according to the Estimates book at least. The overall budget for the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media is down by 8%. While we have a good news story here, we have cuts elsewhere and specifically a 5% cut in arts and culture. That is disappointing and also flies in the face of commitments given by the previous Government - to which I presumed this Government would have been equally committed - to increase the proportion of Government spending on arts and culture every year. The Government in place from 2016 to 2020 committed to double this expenditure and to move it towards 0.6% of GDP. It flies in the face of that to have a cut in the overall level of expenditure on arts and culture in this year's budget.

At least one group that is very disappointed in this regard are those jobbing musicians and performers represented by groups like MEAI. I would be interested to hear the Minister's response to this. I have been told that the funding provided during the Covid pandemic to local authorities to subsidise gigs and performances by musicians who were hit by the pandemic has now been withdrawn. While everybody is glad to see the additional money going to the Arts Council and the funded sector, there was absolutely nothing for the unfunded sector. When we say the unfunded sector, we are referring in particular to individual musicians, artists and performers who, as we know, struggle to survive. They often live quite an episodic and precarious existence but, just like the musicians in the NSO, they deserve our support.

They do what they do primarily because they love doing it. They are also a vital part of our musical heritage but they did not get the support and appear to have lost some of the support they had received during the Covid pandemic in the recent budget. As welcome as the transfer of the NSO to the NCH is and the commitment that the Minister is clearly showing to the NSO and the NCH, we need that commitment and support to go to all of those who contribute to what is a fantastic musical heritage and a fantastic array of musicians and performers, many of whom really struggle. The Government should rethink its support for those jobbing musicians.

This is the same idea that underpins the Minister's decision to support the NSO and give it a stable secure home in the NCH. As Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said, we need to recognise that although they do not make a fortune, it should be a career. Being a musician with all the skill involved in that should be seen and supported as a viable career. I would like that same logic to be extended to other areas of arts and cultural endeavour.

I do not know if the Minister had a chance to look at the discussions yesterday in the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, of which I am a member, where we had representatives of Equity, which represents actors and performers and we had representatives of film crews from the Irish Film Workers Association. Both groups stated that despite very significant amounts of money going in, approximately €100 million a year in the film tax credit - I do not know what the current figure is for Screen Ireland, but it could be in the range of €20 million to €40 million a year - that is not translating into the requirements for security and the proper vindication of rights and conditions for those who work as performers or behind the camera in the Irish film industry. Some of what they said should set alarm bells ringing. The Minister knows I have raised these issues repeatedly. Equity stated, essentially, the law is not being complied with in terms of the copyright and intellectual property rights of artists and performers. It pointed out that the main output they produce as actors and performers is films and suchlike, and that this is being exploited by film producers who benefit from public money through section 481. The performers are effectively forced to sign buyout contracts where they lose entitlement to the residual payments for their own performances. That is something they used to enjoy but have now lost. I asked Equity directly what happens if an actor or performer who wants to get on a film is asked to sign such a contract by a film producer who is in receipt of public money. The public money is supposed to be conditional on quality employment and training but if a performer is not willing to sign a buyout contract where he or she loses his or her right to residual payments, the Equity representatives simply stated they would not get the job. That is bullying.

I noticed the Minister was at the creative space event, which is very welcome, and that she wants to stop bullying, but film producers are bullying performers into signing substandard contracts or they do not give them work. The contracts are grossly substandard compared to the contracts actors and performers get in the UK, the North of Ireland or anywhere else. That is not on. Something needs to be done about it. The film producers should be forced to comply with the European directives. The European copyright directive states that buyout contracts should be the exception, not the rule. In the Irish film industry, they are the rule. Anyone who is not willing to sign up, or worse, anyone who starts to agitate about this situation, is blacklisted. There is nothing to protect people from being blacklisted. That was the other allegation made by the witnesses representing those who work behind the camera who attended yesterday's meeting. They testified to the fact that 40 people who had worked for 20 and 30 years in the film industry have been blacklisted. They have gone out of the industry in spite of having worked on film after film because they asked for recognition of their service in the industry. This relates to what Deputy Ó Cathasaigh stated. In other words, they asked the film producers to recognise that their job was a career. Even though the funding the film producers get is conditional on them recognising that, they do not. Every time a film produced with public money has been completed, the clock goes back to zero for everybody. A person could have 20 years' experience but the next time a film is produced it is as if he or she never worked in the film industry at all. The producers will take a person if they like them, but they will not take them if they do not. There is nothing to protect those workers. I ask the Minister to very seriously examine that because it must stop. We must protect, value, respect and show dignity to all musicians, artists, crew and performers.

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