Mr. Niall Stokes:

The benefits of such a successful active cultural sphere are being seen in tourism numbers. Fáilte Ireland's visitor attitude survey showed that 83% of visitors said they were interested in experiencing Ireland's traditional culture, which includes music, folk music, traditional music and songs. Some 48% highlighted an interest in Ireland's contemporary culture, meaning the music of modern contemporary bands, the films being made about Ireland and the work of Irish films directors and actors. There is a major pay-off for us if we can successfully develop our creative industries in the international sphere.

Every aspect of the creative industry suffers from the size of the market in Ireland. This is a small country with a small population, with 6 million people on the island and 4.6 million people in the Republic of Ireland. It is hard for people to earn a proper living from their work unless they become successful outside Ireland. With regard to musicians, it is more difficult for people to earn a living than it was 15 years ago because of the impact of the digital economy, which has also affected film and broadcasting. It is necessary at public policy level to try to find ways to address the problem and the impact it has had.

Record sales collapsed but there is now the beginning of a recovery through digital platforms that work and streaming services, which people are willing to pay for. It is only the beginning of a recovery and the same is true of movies and broadcasting. It is necessary to think about what we can do to ensure that, 15 years on, hugely talented young people with potentially the ability to make the same contribution as The Chieftains and The Dubliners in the 1960s and 1970s and the Boomtown Rats and U2 did in the 1970s and 1980s and Enya and Clannad did, can stick with their craft and earn a living. In that context, radio play becomes important.

I looked at the charts in Germany one particular week. I actually looked at the Irish charts first. I saw that in the week in question, nine Irish albums and six Irish artists were represented in the Irish top 100. When I checked the same week in Germany, I saw that 18 of the top 20 albums were German-language albums. In Spain, 17 of the albums were Spanish-language albums and in Sweden, 11 of the albums were Swedish-language albums. On the one hand, Ireland gains access to markets in the US and the UK through the lingua francaof popular music and movies, which is English. This enables us to benefit at the high end from the fact that we are an English-speaking country that produces most of our art in English. On the other hand, we suffer very badly at local level from a kind of imperialism, in effect, that allows American and British cultural products to dominate the market here. The week of my study was uncharacteristic to some extent. There were more Irish albums in the charts in later weeks after a bunch of very strong albums were released.

All of this is indicative of a regime that does not offer the level of support which enables artists from a local territory to achieve the maximum within their own place. For that reason, we need a better regime to be put in place. If one goes to France, Spain or Germany, one will find that most of the music on the radio or on the television is in the language of the country in which the broadcaster operates. We need something to counterbalance the dominance of US and UK material here. My clear understanding, having been involved in the former Independent Radio and Television Commission, which negotiated an agreement with Europe about a cultural exemption, is that something of this nature is possible. The problem at the time was that RTE did not fall within the remit of the commission; it was separate. Currently, it is within the remit of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Therefore, it is possible for a regime that covers all of Ireland's broadcasters to be put in place.