Ms Mitchell was speaking at the opening of Brown Bag Films’ 30,000sq ft animation studio in Dublin yesterday.
Brown Bag Films is behind Disney programmes such as Henry Hugglemonster, created by Irish writer and illustrator Niamh Sharkey.
“Please let our children doodle in classrooms,” was her message to teachers across Ireland.
Her remark was referring to where creativity can lead to, when it comes to boosting the economy.
“Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor made a humorous remark referring to encouraging creativity in the classroom and how we want to encourage Irish talent for dynamic and innovative companies across all sectors of our economy,” a spokeswoman from her Department said.
The animation studio, a subsidiary of 9 Story Media, already employs 184 people between its Dublin, Manchester, and Los Angeles offices.
They company plans to bring this number to 255, by 2018.
Brown Bag Films was also behind the Oscar-nominated cartoon series, Give Up Yer Aul Sins.
“Brown Bag is a great Irish success story since its foundation 22 years ago and is a fine example of what an innovative Irish company can achieve in the global market.
“This exciting company is successfully competing in the dynamic and very competitive world of creative animation,” Ms O’Connor said.
Brown Bag Films is currently working on the computer-generated adaptation of the Richard Adams’ novel Watership Down for Netflix and the BBC.
The studio’s managing director, Cathal Gaffney, said that he is currently recruiting new talent for shows like Watership Down and Doc McStuffins.