Mr. Paul Cummins:

Even before the crisis producers felt that RTÉ did not have resources or was not investing enough in drama and international co-productions. Compared to the BBC and ITV in Britain, ZDF in Germany and RAI in Italy, - we have worked with the latter two - RTÉ does not have the scale to invest in international co-productions. As a co-producer, the more we can bring to the table from Ireland, the more equity and the larger share of the work we will get. Obviously, section 481 is fantastic for that. We cannot always rely on Screen Ireland because it has other factors to take into account, particularly on the cultural aspect, and whether there is an Irish director or writer. Other countries can bring a package of tax credits and significant investment from a broadcaster, which we cannot do here.

I will go on to the question of TG4 and regional activity. To be honest, Telegael probably would not exist today if it was not for TG4 in the late nineties. At that stage, we were not looking at international co-productions. We were very much servicing the home market, which was very limited. TG4 gave us bread-and-butter business. It was not huge but we were able to survive on that. Eventually we realised that we would could not survive solely with the home market and we had to go on the international market as well. As a catalyst and springboard for companies like ours, TG4's support has been very important for other companies in the Gaeltacht and beyond. I think some 80% of what TG4 spends is in the regions. As I said earlier, it is very much underfunded. It gets about 50% of the funding that the Welsh-language broadcaster gets to deliver a similar schedule. I know the Dáil has approved a strategy for TG4 for 2023 to 2027. That includes an increase in the funding over five years to get to somewhere near the level of S4C. That certainly would impact in the regions.