Mr. Michael Ludlow:

I thank the Senator and also thank Deputy Heydon. I am talking about programmes such as the FP7 programme, the 7th Framework Research and Technological Development Programme, funded by the EU. There was a total of €50 billion in that. I mentioned that there were only two successful Irish applications up to the end of 2013, which is when we conducted the research on this.

Many other programmes, including Leonardo, fall under the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, EACEA. In answer to Deputy Heydon's question, it is not the responsibility of any Department to apply for this funding. It is not even that a Department would be eligible to apply. The European Commission broadly supports the bottom-up process. It could be a collective grouping of local authorities that make a successful application, as happened in the north west, or it could be a grouping of local bodies in Meath.

Most of the projects in which we have been involved have run through the EACEA at European level. As many of them involve high-level European research, the European Commission will pose a question. As it is addressing policy in 2020 or 2025, it will want the best possible European team brought around that table to discuss that issue and they will be given two years to address that question. In addressing that question applicants have to invest in their own locality and bring the people together in that locality, decide how to address the question and get the input from, for example, the agencies and bodies in County Meath that are relevant, but alongside that they have to do some practical work in using that knowledge to drive the economy, social development or some other aspect of European policy forward at a local level. They are driving it forward at a local level in five different countries. They are not only researching the polity but are trialling a way forward that they will ultimately put forward to the Commission as a solution.

The Senator asked why it costs so much. It requires a European research officer researching all of this. It requires all these experts around the table at the outset putting this together. A high-level submission to a body of that nature would need to run to 200 pages. Unless an applicant is researched and spot on in addressing the Commission's question in a way that gives it the confidence that the applicant will produce something worthwhile, it will not get funded. That initial investment is critical. Those programmes ran up to the period ending in 2013, but 2013 is 2016 in Ireland. We are three years behind in the context of moving programmes forward.

There is a whole new range of programmes at this point of a similar nature available at European level with very significant funding. In the context of the creative sector, given the opportunity-----