Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank everyone for the work they do for such an important sector. So many of them are the people behind the scenes making things happen and that has to be acknowledged today.

There has been much talk since this session started on the capital side, the investment side and the tax break side. One of the aspects I wish to touch on from the outset is that in the lead-up to the Oscars, director David Puttnam described us as a nation of storytellers. I reflected on that because the summer before last, Senator Malcolm Byrne and I went to Ardmore Studios to visit the set of “Vikings”. We met with the famous producer Morgan O’Sullivan. We spent three hours going around the set and speaking with him. Come the end, both of us being politicians asked him what he wanted us for because we did not come down there for nothing. He did not want to talk tax or money, rather he said we need more scriptwriters. He said we are bereft and that is what we need investment in; it is needed on that side of the house. His words came back to me as I was reading the words of Element Pictures CEO Ed Guiney this week, who is spearheading a two-day screenwriting festival in Dublin. He echoed the words of Morgan O’Sullivan when he said that we need to invest in developing our own stories if our industry is going to build up to the next phase and that there is not that investment on that side. I know everyone is doing their work. It was interesting that Morgan O’Sullivan and Ed Guiney spoke about developing intellectual property, which Mr. Horan touched on in his opening statement, and developing the screenwriting side. I just wanted to throw that out because in much of our focus in Ireland, we solve things with tax breaks. However, rather than being just a base for American production companies to ship up, use our land, use our facilities and go home again, the creative people are talking about the IP on our side. I am throwing that out to Ms Finnegan, Mr. Horan and Coimisiún na Meán.