Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Not to labour the point, copyright and workers' rights are matters for the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and section 491, as Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for Finance, but it is my role as Minister for culture to convince the Minister for Finance to widen the role of section 481. In this regard the Department has been quite successful over recent years. Now, at the end of 2025, the Department has begun discussions on the 2027 budget. We have already started to examine the matter.

I do not disagree with much of what the Deputies have said. I am aware that Deputy Boyd Barrett's party is called People Before Profit but I do not believe there is anything wrong with films making a profit. The Deputy said we do not get anything back. The Government invests very heavily in culture, authors, literature and musicians but does not expect to own the copyright of the books. The investment in the film industry is an investment in the country as well.

These films are going all over the world and we reap multitudes of what we are investing in tourism, inward investment and everything else. You cannot buy the type of exposure that we are getting internationally for this. It is a lot of money, but in the scheme of things, based on what all Deputies, including Deputy Boyd Barrett, have said about the successes of Irish film over the last number of years, it is a relatively small amount of money that I want to grow. I am looking forward to working with the Opposition throughout 2026 in what I hope will be a year in which I will be able to bring forward a new Bill, the Screen Ireland Bill.

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