Mr. James Hickey:

We rely very heavily on the entrepreneurship of very small companies. I mentioned 15 films and 11 creative co-productions. These were produced by individual companies with relatively small numbers involved. It is very important for us to try to encourage this entrepreneurship. Any initiatives the Government takes to encourage entrepreneurship from the point of view of the film and audiovisual production sector would be very much welcome as something which would help those individuals. It is a difficult and challenging existence. I speak to all of them on a daily basis and I admire Irish film and TV producers who work very hard. Mr. Dalton will say the independent television production sector has struggled significantly in recent years. Very often people work in very challenging economic circumstances and they have shown great entrepreneurship. Anything the Government can do to support them would certainly be welcome from the point of view of film production.

We are exploring all of the options with regard to the potential for film studios in Galway. The Irish Film Board sought expressions of interest from film studios and received suggestions from existing promoters and proposed new ones. We are all aware of the proposal for Limerick which was mentioned earlier. We are aware of the proposals for Galway, and I speak directly to people in Galway on the proposals for film studios there. There are also proposals for film studios in the midlands. It is a subject which has received recent considerable enthusiasm from many areas and the questions now are how we can best support it and how best to get it to happen.