Ms Anna-Marie O'Rourke:

I have worked in the creative sector in County Leitrim for just over 15 years. The Leitrim local enterprise office has connected with organisations in Omagh, Lisburn and across the north west in terms of working together on funding applications to build capacity around the creative sector.

Many of the people who supply the gallery in Carrick-on-Shannon, such as ceramicists and those in the linen sector, are based in Northern Ireland. We are interested in encouraging that cross-Border trade and in raising awareness of small businesses. We work on a very small scale. The population of Carrick-on-Shannon and the surrounding area is 4,000. In the context of the project to which I refer, our target was to engage up to 200 people in the training initiative through the programme. More than 3,500 people have been involved with the project over a two-year period. There is huge momentum in the context of pushing forward with this work. However, I reiterate the fact that funding for the project will cease at the end of June. At that time, resources and capacity will be lost. We need a strategic plan for the creative sector in County Leitrim in order that we might continue the good work we are doing with our counterparts in places such as Omagh, Fermanagh and Lisburn.

Many of the projects involve freelancers or sole traders. One example is a journalist who has just completed a masters degree at Letterkenny IT and who has linked up with a number of small business owners in the interests of creating an online business together. They are at the stage where they require a little additional support in order to proceed. What we can do - I reiterate that our operation is quite small-scale - is direct them towards their local enterprise office or Invest Northern Ireland. A number of the projects with which we have worked in recent months have been start-ups and they are now in a position to approach Enterprise Ireland in order that they might be considered for its New Frontiers programme. A couple of them have been accepted onto that programme as a result of their involvement with the initiative on which we are working.

I wish to refer to another project that is based in Manorhamilton. The individual involved works in the visual arts. His background is in sculpture and he has been involved with the Leitrim Sculpture Centre for a number of years. The man in question is very interested in socially engaged practice and his project, which is being supported by Harnessing Creativity, involved investigating how the old hydroelectric station in Manorhamilton, which was built in the 1920s, might be brought back into operation. He has carried out a feasibility study in collaboration with HydroNI in Omagh. This is a step-by-step project and it has only been in train for six months. The funding relating to it is less than €3,000. The individual to whom I refer has been invited to address a global conference on rural sustainability at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

We are trying to give people the opportunity to take the next step, to collaborate with each other and to try to strengthen the small businesses in the region. We are based at The Hive in Carrick-on-Shannon, which is the first technology centre in County Leitrim. It has a hot desk facility and is home to the co-creation concept. We have been open for just one year. Graphic designers can come to the centre and use our broadband facility to connect and network with technologists who might be taking a space in the building. We have just reached the point, in conjunction with the local enterprise office, of setting up a Leitrim digital network. As already stated, I feel a bit out of my depth in the company of the other witnesses.

Harnessing Creativity operates very much on a step-by-step basis and the funding relating to it covers me, as co-ordinator, and Orla McGarry, who is administrator. We run the programme for the three counties involved. The budget for the programme is almost €800,000 for three years, which is a fantastic boost to the Leitrim region. Well over a third of this has gone directly to participants on the programme to assist them in evolving their product development processes further. The remainder of the money has been invested in trying to deliver specialist tailored training, which involves using mentors and facilitators from, for example, Visual Artists Ireland, Madano Partnership in the UK and a number of other organisations, within the three counties.