Mr. Ronan McCabe:

I thank Ms Hamilton and I will play the video now. I am not a tech person and I will go through my checklist to ensure that we do this properly. I will now play our video, "The Power of a Levy":

This is a story of a small island on the edge of Europe whose writers, directors, producers, animators and composers have claimed their place on the global stage with the calibre of their output, world-class content that stands beside any international offering but this powerhouse of creativity and output is under threat. The dominance of global streamers and pay TV services is putting our audiovisual sector in an extremely vulnerable position. The speed of the growth is jaw dropping.

The numbers make for uncomfortable reading. The stakes could not be higher. Our ability to tell our own stories is being eroded, download by download. The EU recognises the urgent need to address this situation and has responded with the audiovisual media services directive, which allows member states to introduce financial obligations on global media service providers. We are advocating a content levy on streamers and pay-TV services targeting Irish audiences to generate a fund ring-fenced to produce new Irish stories rooted in our culture. This is not a consumer tax. It is a give-back from global streamers and our European partners have already paved the way.

Even a small percentage of a levy could generate €20 million a year unlocking an additional €100 million in production funding per annum. That is €500 million over the next five years. That would mean more jobs, more tourism and more great Irish stories going out into the world but we must act now. Ireland needs to implement this content levy as a matter of urgency or the sequel to this story will not be written by us.

I trust that the video played okay.