Ms Catherine Keane:

I am coming from an animation perspective. We are based in Kilkenny. Cartoon Saloon has been in existence for 25 years, so it is by no means an overnight success. It has been 25 years building a very viable animation business. We have set up a sister studio called Lighthouse Studios, based on the campus at St. Kieran's College in the heart of Kilkenny city, together with Mercury Filmworks, a Canadian animation company. In a way, we have set up our own hub. We have done so for several reasons but one is crew. When we attract crew to the regions, particularly Kilkenny, we want them to stay. Animation studios are a little different from live-action studios in that they are bricks-and-mortar operations. We pay rent and rates and have a very significant number of support staff who work in-house with us, be they in legal affairs, business affairs, accounts, HR or operations. We are growing all those skills all the time. When we attract top-level artists from all over Europe and the rest of the world to Kilkenny to work with Tomm Moore, Paul Young or Nora Twomey, we want them to stay. Sometimes they might go on to a project in Lighthouse Studios, if that appeals to them, and at other times they stay working in Cartoon Saloon. They build their lives in Kilkenny, which is a very attractive place to live outside Dublin and which is very accessible from the main cities.