Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for enabling this debate and these contributions. It is always important and welcome when feminism finds its way into our public policy. I thank all the witnesses who appeared before the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. Harmful behaviours, including bullying, humiliation, harassment, sexual harassment, assault and sexual assault, are not the preserve of the arts but constitute a societal issue. However, the work and activism of women in traditional and folk music through FairPlé and MiseFosta, including Úna Monaghan and Karan Casey, have been a huge inspiration to me. They should be commended on and thanked for it. They put their careers on hold and distracted from their careers and from the work of making art and music in order to support fellow women in the arts and culture who needed somewhere to go to tell their story. In many ways, FairPlé and MiseFosta women became the go-to place for people to share their stories. That is a huge burden to place on individuals who should be making music and contributing to the cultural life of our country.

The Minister's support, alongside that of the Arts Council, has enabled the Irish Theatre Institute to develop this report, Speak Up: A Call for Change, which is a beautiful document. It highlights the importance of research, because through the austerity years, we had an absence of research into the arts. Money had to get out as quickly as possible directly to artists to make work. Research was probably forgotten for many years. I commend the Minister on embracing the issue, putting money behind it and enabling that research. The work of Jane Daly, Siobhán Bourke and the Irish Theatre Institute must be commended. That showed the time for action was now.

As I have said before, I hope by engaging with the issue the Oireachtas committee has contributed to recommendation 1 of the call for change report.As I have said before, men, the male colleagues of these musicians and artists, need to come to the table. As we know, these supports are entirely built on and informed by the findings and recommendations in the Speak Up report. I again commend Jane Daly and Siobhán Bourke but also the 13,000 people, primarily women, who came forward to tell their stories. Their courage in speaking out will lead to a safer and more respectful working environment for all. Without their brave and selfless decision to speak up, this would not have been possible and we owe them the greatest debt. I also extend my thanks again to the Irish Theatre Institute. This comprehensive and ground-breaking analysis of the experience of bulling and sexual harassment for those working in Ireland's arts sector has provided the framework and recommendations upon which these supports are based. I am confident this report and subsequent reports will not only result in a cultural shift in attitudes and behaviour in Ireland but also provide a framework for the arts sectors in many other jurisdictions around the world.

I also acknowledge and thank the Minister for the commitment she has shown in acting swiftly on these recommendations. She has proven she is up for this and I commend her on it. Far too often, reports are left to sit and gather dust but the Minister's strong and committed leadership in this regard sends a clear message that negative behaviours will no longer be tolerated. Having visited the website safetocreate.ie, I am delighted to see the range of easily accessible and practical information that is already available to both individuals and organisations seeking guidance and support. I am particularly pleased to see the range of online training programmes developed specifically for the creative sector and am further heartened to see the Code on the Road workshops have already begun; with one taking place in Cork last week and a further three scheduled in Galway, Dublin and Sligo this month. Proactively reaching out to individuals is a vital step to achieving widespread cultural reform and I hope such workshops will soon be replicated across the country.

I am also encouraged by the strength and support of these measures within the industry. As we know, cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary leadership is fundamental to the development of a zero-tolerance approach across the sector. I therefore thank the figures for their public support to date and encourage them and others to continue to speak publically about the need for immediate cultural change in their respective sectors. I once again thank all those who have been involved and hope the Minister will continue to show her sincere commitment to the elimination of such harmful behaviours in the arts by expediting the provision of support services for victims of such behaviour including one-on-one counselling, access to legal advice, and a 24 hour trauma helpline. I express my sincere hope that this will not be the end of such work but instead a building block upon which further research into the prevalence and impact of harmful behaviours in Ireland's arts sector will be built. I know that is something about which the Minister is adamant.

The only question I have is about monitoring and compliance. The Minister has spoken about this being led by bodies such as the Arts Council and Screen Ireland, as well as by her Department and that there will be range of measures around conditionality of funding. Will the same compliance and conditionality be attached to funding the Department's funding partners, that is, the big organisations that receive funding directly from the Department? Can we expect, as far as possible, a standardised process of conditionality around funding between the Department's funding partners, and between the Arts Council and Screen Ireland?

I again thank the Minister for coming to the House. I am just out of time.