Ms Sarah Glennane:

There is a lack of consistency. Certainly, some places would benefit more than others. That is one aspect. Something we had included in our pre-budget submission was the need for a type of Enterprise Ireland approach to creative industries. The Arts Council, which is a good organisation that does a lot of wonderful work, can sometimes focus too much on creating funds that artists must apply for. It is not able to support ambition in the same way as we would see in Enterprise Ireland or even in the Design and Crafts Council Ireland Sometimes I look at what we do and look at the food industry and see there is a lot of similar areas there as well. That is another aspect, that local and regional infrastructure would be there to support the development of enterprise and to recognise, for example, with Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon, the significant benefits that can come back where there is that.

Deputy Cannon was referring to Ms Eímear Noone, who is an individual. Another individual, Bill Whelan, went out and got a lot of recording brought back to Ireland. That was their initiative. When I see individuals acting like that, I would always say that one should invest in them, support them and engage with them, bring them in and have an infrastructure that allows for that. The most important aspect, all of my members would say wherever their based, is access to work and access to funded work, that is, work that is well-enough funded. We have composers who are based in Connemara. We have composers who are Gaeilgeoirí and would like to be working more on TG4 content. As Mr. de Spáinn referred to, there is a significant disparity in budgets. It becomes very unfair. We see then where there are lower budgets - such as through the sound and vision scheme and some of the TG4 content created for it - they must rely on production music that is generally coming from outside Ireland. They are going to the big hubs, such as London or Los Angeles, LA, and getting blanket licences. We would say investment is required. It should be encouraged and supported to commission.

We met the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI. They were open to meeting us and have made some changes to their application form but we would want to see more. We want to see the authority recognise that part of its job is supporting this development. Similarly, on section 481 and the cultural test, the inclusion of music creators as part of that and the content levy are where we would really see that coming in.