Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
537. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the progress made on the key recommendations from the report ‘A Safe and Respectful Working Environment in the Arts’, which was produced by the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media in September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [72176/25]
View answerThe report ‘A Safe and Respectful Working Environment in the Arts’, was produced by the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media in September 2022 and was born out of public oral hearings and written submissions from stakeholders across the arts sector.
Based on the findings of the Speak Up: A Call for Change Report, which was funded and supported by the Department, and the Joint Oireachtas Committees report ‘A Safe and Respectful Working Environment in the Arts’, the Safe to Create Programme was launched in October 2022. The Safe to Create Programme addresses the recommendations highlighted in the Joint Oireachtas Committees report which relate to the functions of the Minister and the Department.
Safe to Create set out to put in place a collaborative programme of supports looking to transform workplace culture and practices, and to provide safe and respectful working conditions for those working in the arts and creative sectors. Through the Safe to Create programme, the goal is to transform culture and practices through training, information, voluntary compliance and certification, and provide key support for victims / survivors in the areas of reporting, counselling, and legal advice.
Funded by this Department and managed by the Irish Theatre Institute under the leadership of ITI Director, Niamh O’Donnell, in partnership with the Arts Council, Screen Ireland and Minding Creative Minds, the Safe to Create programme is now leading on a number of actions under the following recommendations from the Speak Up: A Call for Change’ report:
• Recommendation 1. Build cross-sectoral support for change (Correlates with Recommendation 4 & 5 of the JOC Report)
• Recommendation 2. Strengthen reporting and support systems (Correlates with Recommendation 1 of the JOC Report)
• Recommendation 3. Pursue consequences for non-compliance (Correlates with Recommendation 2, 3 & 8 of the JOC Report)
• Recommendation 4. Build capacity to promote a dignified workplace culture (Correlates with Recommendation 7 of the JOC Report)
• Recommendation 5. Invest in further research (Correlates with Recommendation 6 of the JOC Report)
Actions under Recommendation 3 are being led by funding bodies the Arts Council, Screen Ireland and by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. Organisations that are found not to be providing a safe working environment for workers risk disallowing themselves from future funding streams.
The Arts Council have introduced a special condition that all organisations in receipt of Strategic and Arts Centre funding are required to fully adopt and implement the Safe to Create Code of Behaviour, including requiring all staff to undertake the three online training courses, developed for the sector in partnership with Screen Ireland. Screen Ireland similarly require full legal compliance to all health and safety in the workplace and employment legislation. In addition, they require their funding recipients to maintain Dignity at Work policies that include appropriate action and grievance procedures to address employee complaints and grantees must undertake relevant Dignity at Work online, self-led training.
Recommendation 5 of the Speak Up report called for investment in further research, noting that without a full picture of the size and demographics of the sector, accurate and worthwhile analysis of issues – and progress – is difficult to achieve around Dignity at Work. As a result of this recommendation, the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and Irish Theatre Institute re-engaged the research team to undertake a significant research programme from 2022-2025 to examine the prevalence and impact of harmful behaviours in Ireland’s arts/creative sector, and to measure the impact of the Safe to Create programme. Both research reports, AMPLIFY: A Call for Transformative Action and Influencing Change, were initiated following this recommendation.
In June 2023, Safe to Create launched Inform to Transform, an anonymous information gathering tool for the arts and creative sector. In the first year over 100 reports (June 2023 – Sept 2024) were submitted from individuals across art forms including theatre, visual art, literature, comedy, film, circus, craft and design. The analysis of the submitted information provided insights on harmful behaviour in the workplace, highlighting areas of concern, informing the development and focus of Safe to Create supports and feeding into recommendations for the sector.
Further research and work continues to be developed as part of the Safe to Create Programme. For further information on the Safe to Create Programme and all of the resources available to both individual artists and arts organisations, please visit the Safe to Create website: www.safetocreate.ie/.
