Professor Frances Ruane:

The key is the funding levels. What was in place before the crash, like in many other sectors, apart from this one, in terms of some of the structures in place, gave people more certainty, if not security. The reduced certainty has obviously exacerbated the situation. It is crucial, therefore, to have funding lines that are more solid and sustained. Perhaps I am an optimist, but the Government has very publicly committed to increasing the money for the arts over a period of ten years.

Even doing that was very positive. We must watch, and it is important that committee members watch, that the money keeps coming through. It then needs to be spent judiciously throughout the arts system. This debate has provided a focus and its background is about giving a greater level of certainly of opportunities in the system.

The Abbey is one stage. Approximately 200 people were on the main Abbey stage last year in different shapes and forms. Of these, just the small number - 45 - were involved in direct productions but more than another 100 people were involved in other ways and activities on the main Abbey stage. As a proportion of the total country this is very small and I agree with Senator Warfield that it has a big ripple effect. There are also ripple effects from some of the other theatres. Funding in a systematic increasing way is the absolute key. There is much to be said for small companies coming together but I am an economist and we believe in small and medium enterprises as the engines of innovation. I am very strong on this. I would like to see funding coming in such a way that people could begin to think about the next two to three years in their lives as a period during which they can plan to be creative. This will only come from greater security of funding in the system.