Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome. It is obvious from her presentation that she has invested much work in this. Well done on securing €500,000 in the budget. I like proposals like this because it is not just a strategy. The Minister is backing it up with the mechanics of how it will work in a 360° approach. I wish all of our strategies were as clear-cut as to how we will address cultural changes and backing that up with the code and regulations around it, the expectations and the recognition that there is more work to do.

It is significant in the year we introduce the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence that we have introduced this Safe to Create programme to a specific sector. Dignity and respect should be a given in any workplace for everybody but, unfortunately, that is not how it works. In certain professions, the more competitive it is, the more it is perceived you are lucky to have made it or to be trying to, and the more difficult it is means sometimes people think certain behaviours are acceptable when they are absolutely not. Bad behaviour seems sometimes more prevalent in areas that are more competitive. There should be no tolerance of that. It is recognised in the report and in what the Minister said today that women can be vulnerable, as can minorities. We see that across the board. In the arts sector, the Minister has recognised that today.

I am here to try to represent Senator Carrigy and all the work done in the committee to support the progress of the report. I will reflect on that 360° view, the education and training, the code of behaviour and the research required for minorities. It is great that Minding Creative Minds is involved, offering mental health support, and that there is a reporting system. The Arts Council and Screen Ireland are putting in a condition that people must adopt the Safe to Create code of practice and undertake the online Safe to Create training. My colleague Senator Kyne said organisations risk disallowing themselves from future funding if they do not abide by the code and standards, and I completely concur with that.