Irish Film Board (Amendment) Bill 2025 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10
============================================================

Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

In the minute that is left, I want to make it absolutely clear that nobody here is saying it is about quantifying arts in terms of pounds and pence, or whatever the expression is. A lot of art has to be subsidised because it gives a big cultural benefit, but it should not be the case that people who work in the industry and are increasingly getting degrees, qualifications and all sorts of things have absolutely no security about the possibility of working in film production. I know it cannot be the same as any other job. Nobody is suggesting it should be, but there could be a significantly greater level of security and there could be a situation where it is not wide open for people to be victimised. At the moment, there is literally no protection against what Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú said, which is just not getting the phone call. It is as simple as that. You get the phone call or you do not get the phone call. There is no protection against not getting a phone call. That should stop. Similarly, there is no protection against actors, writers and performers having a contract put in front of them and being told to sign that or see you later. That should not happen.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10