Mr. Bill O'Herlihy:

I take this opportunity to thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to address it and outline my vision for the Irish Film Board, the strategies to realise this vision and the challenges and priorities I have identified in this regard. I am happy to answer any questions the committee might ask.

I was greatly honoured when the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, approached me about taking up the position of chairman of such a well-respected organisation. It was something that I thought about for a little while before accepting because I wished to be clear in my own mind that I would have the time and energy to ensure that I would be able to deliver in a positive and constructive manner on the strategies. I believe I can do this. I also very much welcome the appointment by the Minister of the six other members of the board, all of whom bring a breadth of expertise and experience in film and film production to the table, and I look forward to working with them and with the very experienced executive staff of the board.

The Irish Film Board was established under the Irish Film Board Act with a dual mandate of assisting and encouraging the making of film in Ireland and assisting and encouraging the development of an industry in Ireland for the making of films. This mandate was most recently elaborated and expanded on in the Creative Capital report published by the Minister in July 2011 and the implementation for the recommendations in the Creative Capital report is part of the recently published Action Plan for Jobs 2013.

The core business of the Irish Film Board is the development of indigenous Irish film making and the majority of funding is dedicated to this objective. The Irish Film Board supports Irish screenwriters, film directors, actors and crew in realising Irish creatively driven films. Recent examples include: "The Guard", directed by John Michael McDonagh and featuring Brendan Gleeson; "What Richard Did", directed by Lenny Abrahamson and featuring Jack Rayner; "Pilgrim Hill", directed by Gerard Barrett; and the soon to be released animation feature film, "Song of the Sea", directed by Tomm Moore and produced by the team that produced the Academy Award nominated "The Secret of Kells". Irish creative talent is the lifeblood of the industry and I will be working with my colleagues on the Irish Film Board, as well as with the executive of the Irish Film Board, in helping to promote that talent both in Ireland and internationally.

I joined at an exciting time in the industry. In 2012 two films which were made possible through the support of the IFB received four Oscar nominations between them. "Albert Nobbs", set in Ireland and completely filmed on location in Ireland, was nominated in the categories of best actress, best supporting actress and best make-up. "Pentecost", also set and filmed in Ireland with a full Irish cast and crew, was nominated for best short film. This followed on from 2010, which saw Irish talent picking up awards and nominations and some of the industry's highest accolades. Highlights included the Irish film industry receiving five Academy Award nominations, three of which were for films supported by the Irish Film Board - "The Secret of Kells", "Granny O’Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" and "The Door" - while Irish animator Richard Baneham and his team picked up the Oscar for best visual effects for their work on "Avatar". Back in 2008, there was the Oscar for best original song for "Once", which was made for only €300,000 with support from the IFB. Also in 2008, there was the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival for "Hunger", and in 2007 "Garage" won an award at Cannes as well. These awards helped to give confidence and increased profile to Irish creative talent and are significant evidence that Irish film and talent emanating from Ireland have achieved recognition on the world stage.

Irish short films funded by the IFB have received eight Academy Award nominations since 2002. The IFB-funded comedy thriller "The Guard", starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle, has become the most successful independent Irish film in Irish box office history, grossing more than €4.3 million at the Irish box office and more than $5 million in the United States.

The first Bollywood blockbuster to be shot in Ireland, "Ek Tha Tiger", starred two of Bollywood's biggest stars and was filmed on location in Dublin over five weeks. The film used an abundance of Dublin locations for spectacular dance sequences and stunts. It was distributed in more than 20 countries, which meant that images of Ireland and Dublin were projected on the big screen across the globe. All of this provided promotional opportunities for Tourism Ireland to exploit Ireland as a tourist destination. According to Fáilte Ireland figures, 20% of all tourists that visited Ireland in 2010 did so because of images of Ireland they saw on film.

Film is not just about the creative aspects of what is on the screen. It is also an industry and a business. It is an industry that raises finances, provides employment and pays for goods, facilities and services. It creates works that are distributed and promoted in Ireland and elsewhere, are seen by local and international audiences, convey a visual image of Ireland to a wider world, generate exports and revenue from abroad and encourage international tourists to visit Ireland. All of these activities require financial and business skills.

The Creative Capital report was commissioned by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and was compiled by a group of industry professionals under the chairmanship of Brendan Tuohy, the former Secretary General of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. It was completed in April 2011 and was published by the Minister in July 2011. It was included as part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2012 and its continued implementation was also included in the recently published Action Plan for Jobs 2013, in which the implementation measure is stated as follows: "Continue to implement actions set out in the Creative Capital Report to double employment in the film and audiovisual sector by 2016."

The Creative Capital report envisages that if its recommendations are implemented, turnover in audiovisual production, which is already at €500 million, could be increased to more than €1 billion over a five-year period, and the number of full-time equivalent jobs - already more than 5,000 - could be increased to more than 10,000. The headings in the Creative Capital report are as follows: develop an industry and build strong companies; build exports; develop skills and talents; a strong domestic industry; mobilisation of the industry and the whole of the Government; and unlocking its potential. There are 42 recommendations in the report. Some have already been implemented in full, including the extension of the section 481 film tax incentive to 2020, and many are part of a concerted work in progress. I can contribute to that work and look forward to working with the various industry stakeholders as well as the Irish Film Board and its executive.

The particular matters I will focus on will include building strong companies in the sector and supporting a drive for exports of audiovisual works across all platforms. I will also focus on the development of training for those both behind and in front of the camera. I am familiar with the broadcasting environment in particular, and can bring my knowledge and experience to the table in addition to my behind-the-scenes experience through my many years working in public relations. I will also promote the development of the domestic audiovisual industry in all media and look forward to working with the industry in helping to mobilise creative talent in conjunction with the Government and its agencies.

Section 481 has now been extended until the end of 2020, which will assist in giving the sector continuity and certainty for the future and allow projects to proceed in the knowledge that this important underpinning of the industry will be there for the next seven years. This demonstrates the commitment and proactive approach of the Government to the future of the Irish film and television production sector.

With the knowledge and experience I have of both the public and the private sectors in Ireland, I believe I can contribute in a constructive way to the implementation of the Creative Capital report. The stakeholders in this industry include the IFB itself, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the Department of Finance, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, public and private sector broadcasters including RTE, TV3 and TG4, cinema distributors and exhibitors, DVD distributors and retailers, and online video-on-demand and other film services. There is a rapidly increasing variety of ways in which audiences now access content. All of these elements contribute to a cultural industry which is all about creativity and talent, jobs and exports, international revenues and tourists, but it is ultimately about the audience, whether in a cinema or in front of a television or computer screen wanting to be entertained or uplifted, to laugh or cry and ultimately to be engaged in a life-enhancing experience. It also contributes to jobs created and the exports and revenues achieved, whether at the cinema box office, through television or online subscriptions or through DVD rentals and sales, which, in turn, create further opportunities for Irish talent in what is hopefully a virtuous circle of cultural and economic activity.

I believe my experience, qualifications and achievements will enable me, as chair of the board, to bring together the diversity of skills and talents on the board and in the executive, to bring a knowledge of business as well as promotion and marketing to that mix, to provide the benefit of what knowledge I have of the ways of government to what is an area of activity much affected by legislation and regulation and, hopefully, to supply some wit and wisdom to what has been described as the most powerful form of cultural and artistic expression in the modern age.

The Vice Chairman asked me about my background. I have been in broadcasting for almost 50 years and I am very familiar with, and have a full understanding of, the television and radio environments. Through working in news features initially, I think it is fair to say I had a major impact on the development of regional broadcasting in Ireland. In fact, I was RTE's first regional broadcaster, based in Cork. As a consequence of working on the programme on which I worked with Frank Hall, the whole culture of filming Ireland outside Dublin changed.

I covered current affairs for RTE television at a time of immense importance in establishing the relationship between the Government and public service broadcasting. I was public relations director to the Cork Film Festival and advised the director Dermot Breen to change the focus of the festival to the promotion of Irish films in order to ensure its long-term development, which was done. I worked with Seamus Smith, who was managing director of the National Film Studios of Ireland, to promote film-making in Ireland and, along with him, took part in promotional campaigns to Hollywood and the Cannes Film Festival, which successfully brought film projects to Ireland. I produced and financed independently a series of 13 programmes under the title "Distant Drum", a ground-breaking film about the diaspora which was filmed in the United States, South America, Australia, the Far East and Europe and was transmitted and bought by RTE over two seasons. I also produced a documentary on Seán Lemass. I acted as unit publicist on "The Purple Taxi" and "Excalibur", two major motion pictures made in Ireland. I have worked for more than 40 years in the communications industry. I thank the committee for listening to me.