Mr. Cathal Gaffney:

In regard to Deputy Kyne's question, as a parent and licence fee payer I am disappointed with RTE's mandate for public service broadcasting. As mentioned, in terms of children, it does not deliver. The question is framed around economics. RTE needs to spend more money on the domestic market. Currently, its spend in this regard is less than 3% at a time when 25% of our population are children or young people under 16 years of age. If spend on the domestic market was increased to 10% or 15%, the result would be a stronger domestic economy and growth in the number of organic studios we have producing work for the local market. This is what is happening in every other country.

On the question of why Ireland is not the number one producer in the world, Canadian, British and French broadcasters support a local animation industry but we do not have that in Ireland because we do not have enough home grown programmes. We import programmes, which, quite frankly, is not good enough. I would like to see spend in this area increased substantially. A strong domestic industry will be important to ongoing growth of this sector. If this is achieved in parallel with foreign direct investment, it will be akin to putting steroids into the animation sector and making it a global hub.