Film Industry
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

The Minister's Department gives out section 481. The idea that he is not responsible for policing the quality employment and training condition is ridiculous. We need joined-up thinking. Everybody is playing pass the parcel - the Department of arts, the Department of finance and the Department of enterprise - and nobody is responsible. Therefore, workers are blacklisted, overworked, stressed and not treated properly. Their rights are not vindicated. Actors, screenwriters and so on are forced to sign buyout contracts which essentially force them to sign away their residuals. If anybody kicks up, they are kicked out of the industry. That is the actuality of the industry. Is the Minister or the Department aware that Screen Guilds of Ireland, which is funded by Screen Ireland, did a survey of people in the film industry in the summer but never published the outcome? Initially, very few people knew about it but when they found out, 800 film workers painted a very unflattering picture of conditions in the film industry. I have it in front of me. I will read excerpts if I get a chance. It was never published or given to the union. Stagehands recently won cases in the High Court. Equity will tell the Minister, despite what he is being told, that their fight against buyout contracts is ongoing because producers are not responding seriously.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18