Mr. James Hickey:

In reply to Senator Malcolm Byrne's question about levies versus investment obligations, which are the two methods that are authorised under the AVMS directive, the preference at this stage in Ireland would be for a levy. First, because that allows for the opportunity of investment and development, which we think is really important in relation to the future fund.

The second reason is that for an investment obligation, the kind of work that must be produced has to be defined. For most European countries that is a very straightforward thing to be able to do. In other words, in France one says the works must be in French. In Portugal one says they must be in Portuguese. In Spain one says it must be in Castilian, Catalan or Basque. In Italy it must be Italian. For us, that presents a challenge. I know we have Irish language projects and I very much support that some of this fund at least would go to Irish language films. There are wonderful films like "Arracht" which competed at the highest level at the Oscars. It was shot in Connemara in the west. All of these things point to a levy being the better option in Ireland because it is so difficult to define what projects qualify under an investment obligation.

The other difficulty with investment obligations is that under an investment obligation an organisation can simply invest in one big project and that is it. For example, if a company had an investment obligation of, let us say, €10 million or €15 million it could spend it on one large TV drama, and that does not give the broad spectrum of independent producers an opportunity in a contestable fund to be able to get funding for a multiplicity of projects. In answer to Senator Byrne's question, at this stage from an-----