'The world is your oyster'

Hammerlake public information event next week to attact local people into the movie industry

The firm planning to build Europe’s largest film studio on the outskirts of Mullingar is hosting a series of information evenings in the coming weeks in a bid to attract local people into the movie industry.

The first of these information evenings is scheduled to take place in Mullingar Library next Tuesday, September 13, at 6pm; six days before Westmeath councillors are due to decide on whether to approve a material contravention of the county development plan to enable the project to go ahead. Next Tuesday’s information evening will be followed by a similar event in Athlone in October.

If it is given the go-ahead, Hammerlake Studios estimates that when the studio in Lough Sheever Corporate Park is fully operational in 2025, it will have a production staff of more than 1,000 people.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Hammerlake’s director of development and operations,Tom Dowling, said that the firm estimates that between 25 and 30 per cent of the 1,000 staff will be local people.

Since Hammerlake submitted its planning application in May, Mr Dowling says that his focus has been on training and education. He has been speaking with representatives from different bodies, such as Longford Westmeath ETB, Screen Ireland and third level institutions, to identify what training programmes are needed to ensure that the project can hit the ground running.

“I’ve been talking to lots of people in the area about training and how we’re going to find these pools of people, and how we’re going to upskill them to work in the business.

“...One thing is building the studios, the other thing is filling the studios with people – you need that skill set. So you need to build that skill set.

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