Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My apologies again for being absent for our guests' initial presentations. I have tried to quickly catch up. This is so exciting. Much of it is new to me. I want to focus on promoting the work our guests do and engaging with organisations. I am looking at the map produced by Europa Cinemas, which is really interesting. Sadly, I do not see too much happening in the Border area from which I come or in the midlands. Why is that the case? Why is that engagement lacking there? I refer to the Garage Theatre. I know there is a kind of a network. Why are the Garage Theatre in Monaghan or Townhall Cavan not involved in this? Our guests have kind of answered my question. I do not know if they are familiar with Maccana Teoranta. It is a film company in Cavan that is really innovative, energetic and dynamic and has big ideas. There is that gap in the Border region. To where does one go to get the moneys to get the physical infrastructure in place to nurture the talent and give the crews an opportunity to get up and running in that area? As was stated, they probably all tend to cluster together because that offers peer support. I ask our guests to comment on that.

On education, this may have been covered while I was absent from the meeting. Is there any way for schools to be involved in the work being done on the ground in the context of a creative Europe? How is that being nurtured? How is the information being disseminated into schools and education? Which of our guests would like to go first on all of that?