Ms Susan Kirby:

I think Mr. McCabe is referring to the Indecon report in which we outlined in quite a bit of detail the potential economic benefits in terms of direct and indirect benefits and wider induced benefits. We would all be familiar with the direct benefits. In speaking to the indirect benefits, we have mentioned the idea of screen tourism. We are looking at cast and crew and the very substantial direct investment in high-quality employment the Deputy would have seen in west Cork. We are then looking at the spend those companies make so that, down the line, there is a continued investment. I worked on bringing Mark Hamill here with the “Star Wars” project. Something which struck me at the time was that it was incalculable, if that is the word, for Tourism Ireland to measure the impact online of the engagement and amplification of that. In fact, I will change the word and say the potential benefit we could be looking at from screen tourism is immeasurable. Across the whole life cycle of benefit, it is an economic benefit, it is a social benefit because we see ourselves on screen, and it is a cultural benefit because our entire creative ecosystem is supported by this.

While I agree with the Deputy that not everybody will respond to the cultural creative argument, there is a rock solid economic argument which, in the simplest form and at the least ambitious end of this, is that a 3% levy would deliver in the region of €20 million, which would then have a net economic benefit of €100 million. In our minds, this is something we need to get moving on to realise the benefit.