Mr. Robert Donnelly:

Many of our societies offer community theatre. For the likes of Mr. Roche’s work and the productions Mr. Campbell was talking about, they need massive financial input. Our shows cost between €40,000 and €50,000 to put on. If I decided to stage a show tomorrow and I needed €40,000 or €50,000 to do it, I would not have a hope of doing it. On the other hand, if we are staging a show next year, as I might do with my musical society, Avonmore, businesses in the community will come on board and we might get €100 from one shop and €500 from another. If we are lucky and we get on to the county council, we might get a grant of €500 or €250, depending on how many sporting or musical groups are in the pot when the money is being divvied out. As other guests noted, we are looking for financial investment in order that we can put in the groundwork or the basis on which we can build this.

To pay tribute to two of the other guests. I had the privilege of seeing Mr. Donnelly in Waterford when we won the award for best newcomer at the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera. It is amazing that someone I saw starting there years ago has gone on to star in the West End. Similarly, I saw Mr. Campbell directing shows at Trinity College Dublin when he was a student and also in Donegal, and now he is directing shows in the West End and another here in Dublin, namely, Toy Show: The Musical.

We are blessed to have people of this stature and talent in the country. With no disrespect to Mr. Campbell and Mr. Donnelly, we have so much talent in this country that they will not all get a chance to shine, and they will travel to the UK to make a career in this business. If they are lucky and they get in that door, that is great, but if they do not, they will end up coming back home here, where they have so much to give in this world of musical theatre.

If we can use the likes of Mr. Donnelly and Mr. Campbell to help establish, as Ms Masterson and others outlined, a national musical theatre in this country, that would be great. People travelled from Ireland to the West End to see The Commitmentswhen Mr. Donnelly was cast in the lead role, with an all-Irish cast. If that show had been staged in Dublin, everyone would have gone to see it because we support our own. I have no doubt that when Mr. Donnelly came here to star in The Phantom of the Opera, the sales went through the roof, not because that particular musical was coming but because Killian Donnelly was coming home to Ireland to play the lead in The Phantom of the Opera, and that is amazing. Likewise, it is great that Mr. Campbell is coming home to direct shows in Ireland.

That is where they should be performing, in Ireland and for us and the people who are here. People will come. Every show in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre or elsewhere in Dublin is packed out because musical theatre is the biggest entertainment form. It is our hobby, but it is a profession for some of the other guests and we need to do all we can to keep that going.