Mr. Ciarán Kissane:

I would add a further point. One of the key benefits is that because stories are coming from a wide variety of sources in terms of many independent producers who are getting support to make stories they have identified, they have a vested interest often in telling that story and giving it as much life as possible.

In terms of the Deputy's query, I would cite the example of "Lón sa Spéir" which we funded and TG4 broadcast, which was very successful. It was made in Irish and was about the famous picture of the men building the Rockefeller Centre. The producers of that programme were in a pub in Shanaglish in Galway and they identified there was a link between Shanaglish and the famous photograph; they followed that story all the way through and made an excellent documentary about it. As well as it doing very well here in terms of winning an IFTA, the producers entered it in festivals abroad and it has done very well because of that Irish link with an very international story. The scheme allows such a story to be told and a film on it to be made. When a person has a story like that to tell and an angle on it, there is a way to get funding to tell it which would not happen if he or she could not apply to do so under the sound and vision scheme.