Ms D?sir?e Finnegan:

I agree with the Deputy's characterisation of "An Cailín Ciúin" and the impact that had globally. There is no question about that, having looked back through the effect it had, the global media coverage, the promotion of Irish culture, locations on screen and especially the language. One of our primary roles is the expression of Irish culture on screen. We believe to really make a meaningful difference in terms of nationwide development we need a holistic strategy and approach to it. That would have been the domestic activity TG4 referenced earlier and that idea of building creative clusters in certain parts of the country and having a broad film officer network around the country. In a number of counties there are dedicated film officers and they have been very effective at encouraging productions to come to local counties and also build up on the ground activity.

There are also things like infrastructure locally. The Deputy mentioned the studios. They are really important to be able to build the crew base around. It is also about supporting local production companies and talent development initiatives from the ground up. The dual approach we have championed for a long time is trying to balance those two things, namely, ensuring we are supporting the domestic storytelling on screen while also attracting international productions to different parts of the country. That is incredibly important to really make a meaningful change in the industry and ensuring we are supporting it. The Deputy may be aware we started the creative clusters programme with Cork as the pilot. In November 2023, we met a large group of stakeholders during the Cork Film Festival to really try to understand better what we can do as an agency to help support the growth of a cluster. There is so much talent. As he mentioned, the infrastructure is there. What else can we do to help build and support that? I understand the councils locally are working on their support of film and what can be done and I think it is part of the new arts-----