Mr. Mathew Horsman:

There is a vibrant and extensive provision of music, including classical music and lots of traditional Irish music. Some 80% of the orchestral music market, in terms of the money generated or spent, is RTÉ, whether through the licence fee or RTÉ's commercial income by way of commercialising elements of the orchestras. Every 80 cent per euro spent comes from RTÉ. There is a critical breakdown of this on page 4 of the pack we have provided. We point out that there is also a little bit of Arts Council funding for some of the other groups, some non-RTÉ commercial income, adding up to just 5% of the total market, and some other small public grants. When so much rests with a single provider a very unbalanced market is produced. That was the main observation in the market sizing analysis we started with in this process.

Many stakeholders we spoke to outside RTÉ have been around long enough to remember the PIANO report from some years ago which recommended that the National Symphony Orchestra be set up as an independent orchestra outside RTÉ. We were mindful of previous reports while carrying out our work, but we very much responded to the current set of dynamics. We did not seek to parrot the contents of older reports. From our perspective, it was interesting to hear repeatedly from stakeholders that we need two orchestras because they are the magnets of the sector. To safeguard it they believed the National Symphony Orchestra should truly be a National Symphony Orchestra, independent and set up as a separate entity. That view was expressed widely among those we spoke to. There were different points of view and differences of opinion, but most people subscribed to that idea. Many, however, wished to reserve judgment and see the detail, which is what this process is about.