While larger companies are no longer dependent on the Irish market, RTE can make or break their smaller competitors.

Eimear Joyce of Arbutus Animation says the national broadcaster could be of more help to animation companies: "They just say `no' and have no budget for new ideas. They have a very old-fashioned approach to animation." That RTE presents a challenge to Irish animation companies is a recurring theme with animators. Gerard O'Rourke of Monster Productions complains that "RTE is a major drawback. This is through no fault of its own - it's because we have such a small population. The population of Britain is 60 million people and we've three-and-a-half million here, so the revenue from licence fees is much smaller and RTE can't afford to get behind many animation projects. "They can say `yes, we'll buy your project and give you £1,000 for each series' - whereas we could get £15,000 or £20,000 from ITV."'

But RTE has been pivotal in helping some smaller animation companies get off the ground. Partners Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O'Connell of Brown Bag Films were both studying animation at Ballyfermot Senior College when they made Peig for RTE.

Complete with talking pig, their treatment of this Leaving Cert classic was a success.

Gaffney explains: "RTE took a big risk on us. We didn't know what we were doing, but it worked out great and got great ratings." O'Connell adds: "We thought the door was going to be kicked down by people throwing work at us - and, of course, that didn't happen."

That was almost five years ago. Today, thanks to continuous re-investment and hard graft, Brown Bag now employs eight full-time animators and uses freelancers as projects demand. With the help of RTE work including Why?, a series for pre-school children, and Bar Stool, Brown Bag has invested heavily in Animo, a computer programme which is an industry standard in Hollywood productions. At over £20,000 per installation, it is a big but necessary investment. The company now has two installed and will have two more by next February.

Rocket Animation also got its start with RTE. Caroline Dunn, Owen Fitzpatrick and Keith Foran have been in business a year-and-a-half.

Rocket has completed a second series of Backyard Tales, a three-and-a-half-minute insert for The Morbegs on RTE. It has also done The Lab for Den TV, which was funded by RTE and Forfas, and was part of the drive to encourage science in schools. Rocket is currently at work on an eight-minute film funded by the Frameworks scheme. Based on a chapter from Brian Keenan's book about his time as a hostage in Lebanon, An Evil Cradling, it will be narrated by Keenan himself.

Both Dunn and Fitzpatrick subsidise their animation work with teaching in Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. "It keeps us up to date and it keeps the students up to date because they have staff who are working in the industry," Dunn says. "I teach one day a week and it's a complete headrest to go in there and look at other people's work." It is also necessary to fund projects as Caroline and Owen's teaching income is the only outside funds they've had.

"We find that RTE has been keeping us going and been our mainstay," Dunn says. "The projects we do for them don't have exciting budgets, but, for us, it was a good way of getting out there. Now we have a show reel of stuff that has been broadcast and we can go a lot further and start looking into Europe."