Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I knew what I was up to even at that stage. This turns on its head the idea that living in a rural area is a disadvantage. It is a distinct advantage to live in a rural area if one is involved in the creative industries. I found it intriguing that the Irish language was not mentioned until Deputy Conaghan referred to it. I might have missed something at the beginning, however. I see the Irish language as an integral part of the development of the creative industries. A kind of reverse migration can happen with the language. If people can develop their creative industries as Gaeilge initially, it is very easy for them to migrate back to English as we have seen with the likes of Dáthí Ó Sé, Grainne Seoige and the band Altan, all of whom started as Gaeilge but then came back to a much more mainstream audience in the lingua franca of English. We must realise that there is huge potential in training people as Gaeilge who also have very fluent English.

I am also interested in the connections with organisations like Skillnets. Skillnets was utilised very well in the creative industry in Spiddal to do the kind of vocational training creative people wanted. We are talking about training people in the creative industries, but the creative person tends not to like mainstream education. They tend not to want to do degrees. Degrees tend to have an element of homogenisation so that if one sends people to art or drama schools, they tend to come out doing the same type of art or drama, which loses their individualisation. Artists in particular tend to shy away from that type of training, which is why we need a different model when it comes to the creative industries. Skillnets has been utilised quite well, but there are also other options. I would be interested to hear any thoughts the witnesses have on the use of the Creative Europe and Leader programmes to enhance the creative industries in the west.

There are outstanding examples of people who have turned rurality into an advantage. I think of Philip King and his company, South Wind Blows, which is based in west Kerry, the way they produced "Other Voices" and the programmes they did on Irish music. Philip has been very critical recently of the accessibility of broadband technology. Surely, that must be given a bigger priority. If we have a hub or a town where we intend to create one, we must ensure the top level connectivity is available. Where do the witnesses see the hubs being based?

Links with third level are very important. Third level options being available rural areas is also hugely important. If one looks at the furniture college in Letterfrack, one sees a prime example of how one can take a niche course, put it in a rural area and have it create its own dynamic in that it brings people to the area. It is within a community that is in itself very creative. What do the witnesses recommend as regards third level colleges doing that? The trend in the last number of years has been to contract, to pull in from the periphery and to take courses away from those rural areas. For example, there has been a trend in NUIG to pull back on the number of courses that were available part-time and at weekends.

The other tendency of people in the creative industries is to multitask. There are two elements to that. They can multitask in a creative sense by being a writer, artist and filmmaker and do a number of different things. We need to look at a model of supporting them that will allow them to either multitask or specialise in one area. The other classic example of multitasking is where someone who is very good at pottery, for example, also wants to run a business but lacks the business skills.

There is then that innate fear of collaboration with someone who might be more au faitwith business and marketing. How do the witnesses see us overcoming that problem?

The witnesses referred to the area being given a regional status. We know that there is a move within Europe to broaden the labelling idea so that if one gets a wine or cheese from a certain region, a classification is given to it. Is that the type of regional branding the witnesses are thinking of in order that one could get an EU classification as a creative area which would given one a certain kudos? It is something like the UNESCO idea of film in Galway. Is that something that could be looked at?

I was in Denmark quite a few years ago where they had a fantastic concept of the cultural dynamo in one of the folk high schools. The folk high school is like transition year but after school as opposed to in the middle of it. One can do a course in whatever one wants after finishing the equivalent of the leaving certificate. The one I visited was a creative arts school which had dance, theatre, film and music. There was another element in the idea of cultural dynamos. Cultural dynamos are the people who make things happen. They are the people who see opportunities and that there might be funding available. They can access resources and people who can do things, drag them together and push them to do the projects. Do we have anything similar in Ireland where we create these cultural entrepreneurs and dynamos? Is it something we should be thinking about?