Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to focus on training. This is a major gripe within the sector as far as I can see because the training seems to have no beginning, no middle and no end. It has no accreditation. If a person looks to go into any sector, what he or she will seek is to know how long it is going to take, know what their output has to be and know the accreditation. Once they have achieved that accreditation, he or she does not participate in that space again. They move on. However, that does not seem to be the case in the film industry.

Many people come to me and say they are being forced back into the same training spots repeatedly. It seems to be motivated to an extent by the section 481 necessity to have a certain number of trainees on a production. Is that not something ripe for reform?

I am running out of time, so I will ask another couple of questions and then the witnesses might address them all together. The other issue is that the Irish Film Board has the potential to run a forum in the industry. Now is a good time, even from the level of development we have seen over the past number of years and where we want to go. There are also these underlying problems. Would it be a good idea to initiate that forum and give workers in the industry a right to initiate that in the future? Different sectors would have a right to initiate a forum. Would it also be a good idea for the Irish Film Board to have a representative of the crew workers? The Irish Board would then have a broader more insightful view into the experiences of the different people it takes to make a film. I know that is not the Irish Film Board's choice. It is the Minister's choice but it is something that could be suggested.

In respect of films, what is the break down between indigenous films and international films funded in the State at the moment? What would be the break down of films that are successful financially and those that are less so? Those are my three questions. The first one is open to everyone and the last two are just for the Irish Film Board representatives