Mr. Larry Bass:

I will comment briefly on Deputy Ryan and Senator McDowell's questions on the creative thinking hub. We are all open to that as we are a creative industry. It concerns the ability to bring about new ways of funding. We are all open to doing that in another form. The VAT rate in tourism was reduced to allow the sector to recover. One could take the VAT rate on those particular services and then redistribute the funds.

As regards regional film funds, who will put the money in? Irish film needs more money and Irish broadcasters need to support Irish film more strongly. If it is locally available it will be guaranteed to be spent locally, which is how it operates around the world. We all support that. In terms of other ways of making the RTE money go further, TG4 is a shining light as a public broadcaster. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it should not have any commercials at all. That aspect is so small in terms of TG4's income that it should have an increased Exchequer fee and be commercially free like the BBC. TG4 would generate more viewers that way. Equally, if RTE could move towards being more of a publisher-broadcaster, the independent sector could fulfil the role of more programming.

When the cuts came, as they did through the crash, the spend in the independent sector fell from €80 million to €40 million. We therefore took a 50% cut, have not recovered and it is getting tougher. The independent sector has taken its fair share of cuts but it can certainly build up and supply the content at a very high level. Film producers are putting Ireland on the map not just locally but also globally with their ability to gain Oscar nominations and Oscars. With Creative Ireland, of which we are part, we can address these funding issues collectively.