Mr. David Collins:

This does not just apply for applications for the tax break. It is the same if one is applying for funding from the Irish Film Board. Let us say that a project costs €1.5 million. Around 40 people will be employed full-time for between two or three months. Perhaps ten to 15 people will be employed part-time for around six months. The production company might be employing between 20 and 40 or 50 actors of varying levels of renown or notoriety over that period. The amount of money a company gets from the State for that might amount to one third of the budget or perhaps slightly more than that. The producer must raise the rest of the money from other sources internationally and must hope that it all arrives at the same time. That is the volatile nature of this business.

To be clear, the top company is the custodian of those funds and it has a duty of care to spend that money as it has promised its various stakeholders. If that company does not spend its money in the way it promised, the market will turn against it and its Irish stakeholders will turn against it. A company that would behave like that would not be in business for very long. I am a producer, and my line is, "In dreams begin responsibilities". If somebody comes to me with an idea and I agree to help him or her make it happen, I then have to take responsibility for that dream.