Ms Katherine Licken:

The way we saw it at the time was that we did not have any other option. We are not in the business of running cinemas as public sector organisations. Element Pictures had a proven track record in this area. It has doubled the numbers of cinema goers in its art house cinema, the Lighthouse in Dublin. It had the track record and it was prepared to put up the money. The building will remain in the ownership of Galway City Council. The lease was reduced from 99 years when it was a not-for-profit company to 30 years for a private company.

There is a commercial rent after year 25. The Department and the Western Development Commission, WDC, have a lien on the building and if it does not do what was set out from day one, which is to deliver an art house cinema, we can revoke the lease.