THE WESTERN Development Commission (WDC) has forecast that the region’s “creative sector” could generate employment for some 13,000 people.
Some 11,000 people are already working with the arts, at 3 per cent of total employment in the western region, the WDC says.
The sector could generate an additional 2,000 posts, it says in a report presented yesterday to Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív.
Currently, some 4,779 “creative businesses” in the west have a combined annual turnover of €534 million. This contributes €270 million in gross value-added terms to the regional economy, the WDC says.
The WDC defines the “creative sector” as “those businesses which rely most on human creativity to generate economic value”, ranging from television production to graphic design, music, theatre, architecture and the visual arts.
The average annual growth rate of the trade in creative goods and services worldwide is 8.7 per cent, WDC chief executive Gillian Buckley said.
Ms Buckley says the sector can contribute to building Ireland’s “smart economy”, in helping to develop thriving indigenous enterprises.
A baseline study on the sector was undertaken by Oxford Economics and Perceptive Insight Market Research for the WDC. It found that creative businesses in the west tended to be small-scale, with only 12 per cent of a sample of businesses surveyed employing more than 12 people.
Highest arts-based employment in the region was in Leitrim, Sligo, Galway and Donegal.
The study recommends that a regional approach to development would “serve to build capacity across the region, and extend the diversity and efficiency of the region’s creative sector”.
It says that “enhanced partnership between the private and public sector” would “contribute to the realisation of the creative sector’s potential”.
A “dynamic vibrant sector” would also benefit from increased co-ordination among various stakeholders, many of whom work in relative isolation, it notes.
The study adds that a lack of low-cost workspace can hamper creative ambition and notes that “new developments and investments” have “not always been tailored to the key strengths of the region” and “may have damaged the key attributes which attract creative people”.
Commenting on the report, Mr Ó Cuív said that it made “economic sense to support creativity”.