I want to see a sustainable screen industry in Ireland where everyone is treated fairly and receives fair and equitable remuneration. In equal measure, I expect all stakeholders to engage actively with each other to come to appropriate and fair agreements. Earlier this year at the Galway Film Fleadh, I brought many of the stakeholders together including representatives of the creatives referred to by the Deputy at a round table discussion.
There is no doubt that this is a complex and nuanced issue. There are some collective agreements in place such as those for shooting crew and construction crew. These include rates of pay, terms and conditions, provision for pension and dispute resolution. Such agreements are beneficial to everyone, producer companies, incoming productions, and indeed, workers themselves providing clarity and transparency. Film crew referred to by the Deputy are represented by SIPTU who represents many of the screen workers guilds and for whom the shooting crew agreement operates.
Where there are no collective agreements, contracting will vary from production to production, across a range of production types from lower budget domestic productions to higher budget incoming international productions and with different approaches for film and television projects. Each project and productions has to make its own arrangements for rates of pay and to purchasing rights.
The acting profession is represented by Irish Equity/SIPTU and it is clear that SIPTU may negotiate and agree contracts, arrangements and rates for stage and screen actors in Ireland.
In the matter of the other creatives mentioned by the Deputy - writers, and directors - they are represented by the Screenwriters Guild and The Directors Guild respectively. The issue of how these creatives and, and indeed the Guild representing screen composers operative under the transposed EU Copyright Directive is currently being discussed and this falls to be clarified by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment as matters relating to intellectual property rights, copyright and the transposition into Irish law of the EU Copyright Directive fall under his remit.
Earlier this year, Screen Ireland, the State Body with responsibility for the development of the Irish audiovisual industry, retained an independent facilitator to meet with stakeholders to understand and discuss issues that have arisen since the transposition into Irish law of the EU Copyright Directive.
During the first phase of the process, individual stakeholder meetings were held and subsequently moderated group discussions took place with screen writers, directors, composers, actors, animation and live-action producers, with a view to finding common understandings and potential clarifications that might be required around the legislation. As a collective, the industry representative group has proposed next steps that Screen Ireland is currently reviewing with a view to supporting progress. It is important to allow that process the opportunity to address some of these concerns in the first instance. As Minister, I would encourage all representative groups to continue to engage in this process and in negotiating fair agreements to ensure the continued success and growth of the industry.
