asked the Minister for Defence whether the film crew employed by an Irish advertising agency to film recruiting commercials for the Army is non-national.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Army Recruiting Film.
21.
The advertising agency appointed by my Department to handle recruiting advertising for the Permanent Defence Force is not restricted, under the terms of the contract, in its choice of employees.
The Minister did not reply to my question. I want to know whether the film crew employed by an Irish advertising agency to film recruiting commercials for the Army is non-national. Can the Minister state if this is the case?
The position is that there is no processing available to us in the country for colour films. The advertising agency which received the contract from my Department had to make the decision whether an Irish director, if employed, would have to go to London to oversee the processing of the film there and see to various other matters. They were not restricted on what they should do but it was considered by them that the wiser procedure would be to get an English director who would bring over the minimum number of people with him. In fact, he brought with him an assistant director and one cameraman. The team involved numbered nine. It was impossible in the time available to me to check whether the other six members were all Irish nationals but all of them are resident here. All that happened in respect of this non-restricted company who were appointed to handle the very important recruiting compaign is that three non-nationals worked on the film; processing was not available here and that is why the company involved considered it wise to act as they did. The other six people are resident here. If I had had the time to find out if each of the six was an Irish national, of course I would have done so for the Deputy.