Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)

I was delighted to learn that Mr. Tom Cooper was Senator O'Keeffe's uncle. I was not aware of that connection. Every year we honour people at three film festivals in Kerry. There is the Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival in Waterville, the Dingle Film Festival and the Kerry Film Festival. I have yet to hear of anyone honouring Tom Cooper. This has given me a very good opportunity. "The Dawn" is a very famous film. It is the one we are always reminded of when we speak of film in Kerry. I have been given many ideas as to how we should recognise that. I hope to speak to Senator O'Keeffe again about this.

Senator Bradford referred to Australia. A very good film industry has been built there. Australia's neighbour, New Zealand, has done wonderful things, particularly with the "Lord of the Rings" series. That series made New Zealand as a tourism destination. The country really capitalised on those films. New Zealand has been sold in a major way through "Lord of the Rings". Major emphasis is being placed on the film industry in that part of the world. I know this from young Irish people who are working in the film industry in Australia. I received an e-mail last week from someone telling me we could learn from what is happening in Australia and New Zealand.

The Irish Film Board is responsible for the creation of approximately 31,000 jobs in the last five years. Those figures stand up because it is easy to quantify jobs in the industry. Some are part-time and some are on longer projects, but when one adds the various types of jobs and calculates part-time equivalence, one sees that the industry is job intensive. At present, about 5,500 people are working in the film industry. There are peaks and troughs depending on the level of activity at a particular time. Generally, there has been much activity in several aspects of the film industry, including documentary, animation and the commercial sector. There are great opportunities in the commercial sector, which is worth about €60 million. Many more commercials could be made in Ireland.

Senator O'Keeffe obviously has a passion for the film industry. It is good to know there is someone in the House with that passion. Her family connection with Tom Cooper and with Kerry is very important. I look forward to speaking to her in the future about the film industry. In that context, she may be able to come to one of the events in Kerry and even speak about Tom Cooper. He deserves to be honoured. We hear about "The Dawn" but we do not hear about Tom Cooper.

I can not claim credit for the report, Creative Capital: Building Ireland's Audiovisual Creative Economy. It was presented to me when I came into the Department. My officials, Mr. Niall O'Donoghue and others, have been very much involved in this project. It is an ambitious report. The objective is to have 10,000 people employed in the film industry in five years time producing more than €1 billion. That is achievable from what I see. It brings together different elements of the industry, as can be seen in Appendix lV of the report. The idea of a dedicated business development unit is covered in the report.

The Creative West brand is also important. A large number of productions come from India to places like Switzerland simply for the landscape. They are not aware of the landscape we can offer. The landscape of the west of Ireland is unique, because of our latitude, our weather, our coastline, our biodiversity and many other natural factors. Those companies could come and do some of their shooting of commercials or films in Ireland. We have not fully capitalised on that.

There is great scope for co-productions. Last summer, I signed a co-production agreement between Luxembourg and Ireland. That will lead to important funding for "At Swim-Two-Birds". That film will happen now. Co-productions are important and we are quite good at doing them.

Last summer, film interests came together in Galway and formed the Galway Film Partnership. For anyone who wants to make a film in Galway, the partnership provides a contact person with the Garda, the county council, the Irish Film Board and other bodies. The Galway Film Partnership could be a prototype for the rest of the country.