Ms Louise Allen:

The Cathaoirleach has raised some valid points. In one of my former roles with the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, I worked directly with some of the career guidance agencies. From a local enterprise office understanding and from a designer's, craftsperson's or artist's perspective there is a challenge in terms of understanding what the job is. Young designers presenting themselves do not necessarily see themselves as entrepreneurs. Equally a local enterprise office will not necessarily see them as potentially being the next business it wants to be able to support. We need to put that infrastructure in place.

The Design and Crafts Council of Ireland has launched a number of initiatives and we are actively working with the local enterprise offices. We have set up a design mentoring panel to give advice to young and emerging craft enterprises. We have realised that just as the designers need an education, the agencies also need an education. We will actively work with them to deliver workshops regionally. We have set up an initiative, called Fuse, that brings a number of experts in retail, design, innovation and PR into a space with a group of designers to work intensively with them to understand what those young creative individuals need in terms of support. That is followed on by one-to-one mentoring, much of which is supported through a partnership between local enterprise offices, and Irish Design 2015 and the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland.

The role of arts officers in supporting the designers is very important. I was an arts officer for a brief period and I know it is a very demanding role. More to the point, there is a gap. There could be a role for a similar person in the design field - a design officer or a craft and design officer in the local authority who could potentially deliver a dedicated support service. If we try to give too much work to arts officers, they might not be able to deliver.

On spaces for creative individuals, the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland is looking at creating centres of excellence for fashion and textiles, and ceramics. There is a benefit in terms of supporting the emergence of workspaces for creatives. We need to look at the model. I know a number of local enterprise offices have supported those in the past. Not all of them have been successful and some have been extremely successful. We need to look at the levels of investment and how we bring creatives and companies forward, looking at those economies of scale and how those enterprises can scale. We need to come together and develop a number of strategies in partnership.

The Chairman asked if we appreciate the creative economy enough and if we take it for granted. We work in partnership with the media. The Irish Timesand RTE are very strong partners particularly for Irish Design 2015. It is very important to celebrate our wins. It would be great to have a slot that celebrates Irish design in Milan, for example, on the national news. We need to become more aware of the contribution not only to the economy but also from a cultural perspective of how Ireland is perceived abroad. The level and depth of culture that we hold intrinsically in ourselves without even knowing it is something we should celebrate more fully.