Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 69:

In page 75, after line 41, to insert the following: “(3) Section 481 of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (2)(b), by the insertion of the following subparagraphs after subparagraph (iv):

“(v) a condition that the qualifying company shall, in respect of the qualifying film concerned, comply fully with the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019,

(vi) a condition that the qualifying company shall make every effort to ensure that performers, writers, composers, artists and other film workers resident within the jurisdiction will not be subject to lesser terms and conditions regarding their intellectual property rights than persons resident outside the jurisdiction engaged in similar roles when employed on the same qualifying film, and

(vii) a condition that the qualifying company shall not require performers, writers, composers, artists or other film workers to sign away their rights to future residual payments for their work on a qualifying film, or to agree to a so-called ‘buy-out’ contract, as a pre-condition of working on the qualifying film.”.”.

We have two minutes. A number of us have brought up these particular issues relating to the power differential that exists in the film industry. We all welcome section 481 as a means of ensuring a sustainable film industry but there are huge issues. All the power lies with the producers and we need to rectify that. We have all spoken about the need for a stakeholders' forum, but our amendment is about complying with the law, specifically the Copyright and Related Rights Act and the EU copyright directive, treating Irish performers, writers and film workers at least no worse than their counterparts from overseas working on the same film, and not forcing buyout contracts on performers whereby they must sign away rights to future residual payments before being given work on a film. There are a number of other issues relating to this but I believe we just need to bring it to a vote.

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