Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

29. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the measures she plans to take to reduce precarious work in the film industry and create training and career pathways; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47418/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In June 2018, I launched the Government's Audiovisual Action Plan. I have also established an oversight steering group charged with the overall implementation of the plan's recommendations. This steering group has met three times since the action plan was published. The group includes representatives of all Departments and State agencies with involvement in the audiovisual industry. The steering group will report to me at regular intervals and is engaging proactively with stakeholders in the film industry.

The Plan drew heavily on a Study prepared by international audio-visual consultants Olsberg SPI with Nordicity entitled Economic Analysis of the Audiovisual Sector in the Republic of Ireland which was also published in June. The report measured the economic value of the Irish audiovisual industry, and proposed policy changes to support its future growth. The report showed that the Irish audiovisual sector generated €1.05 billion in gross value added in 2016 and supported employment of 16,930 full-time equivalents of which 10,560 was direct employment. The largest contribution to employment came from the film, TV, and animation sub-sector, which generated 11,960 full-time equivalent jobs (FTEs) of employment of which just over 7,000 was direct employment such as cast and crew.

Fís Éireann is the national development agency for Irish filmmaking and the Irish film, television and animation industry, investing in talent, creativity and enterprise. I am glad to report that Screen Training Ireland, which is a division of Fís Éireann, plans to hold an inaugural Screen Industry Education Forum on the 19th November. The aim of this annual event is to bring screen industry stakeholders, education/training providers and policy influencers together to focus on the skills development challenges and opportunities of the screen sectors in Ireland.

The audiovisual sector supports thousands of jobs of Ireland and there is significant potential for further growth in the years ahead. Ireland’s audiovisual and animation industry is currently worth more than €1 billion to the Irish economy, and the audiovisual Action plan which I launched in June, set out under the Creative Ireland Programme, has the potential to not only increase the number of full-time industry employees to an estimated 24,000, but to grow its gross value to nearly €1.4 billion.

The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection has brought forward the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017 to improve the security and predictability of working hours for employees on insecure contracts and those working variable hours. This legislation responds specifically to the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government to address the problems caused by the increased casualisation of work and to strengthen the regulation of precarious work. The Bill completed Report and Final Stage in the Dáil on 12th July 2018.