Mr. James Hickey:

The Irish Film Board very much appreciates the opportunity to make a presentation to the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment on public service broadcasting.

The Irish Film Board has had a really successful year in terms of Irish creative talent showing the strength and depth of their work on a word stage. I am sure everybody is aware of the feature film "Song of the Sea", which was nominated for an Academy Award in the best animation feature film category last year. Both "Room" and "Brooklyn" were nominated for best feature films this year. This shows the strength and depth of Irish creative talent in the feature film sector. It is vitally important that the Irish Film Board emphasises that this is a result of the years of investment in creativity and the development of Irish creative talent. The primary concern of the Irish Film Board is that it continues to invest in that talent.

The Irish Film Board is very pleased to see that 2016 was a great success in the way in which the importance of culture was placed at the centre of Irish thinking and society. The strength of culture and media content was brought to the fore by public service broadcasters and in particular by the work that RTE undertook during the commemorations. We in the Irish Film Board believe strongly that this legacy is something than can be built on and can bring a greater sense of Irish culture and creativity to the country. We would be very excited to see the country take advantage of this opportunity to advance this legacy.

The funding of the Irish Film Board was increased this year, which was welcome, however there is a long way to go before the funding is restored to the levels we were at previously. Equally, we believe it is very important that a resolution be arrived at in respect of the funding of public service broadcasting. This applies to both RTE and TG4, because of their relationship with film makers, the creators of screen content. The the Irish Film Board supports feature film makers, the development of TV drama, the development and production of TV animation and would like to see all these sectors supported to a much greater extent by public service broadcasters. However public service broadcasters can only do that if they are provided with the additional funding which they need in order to achieve that really great contribution to creativity and to the strength of talent that is undoubtedly there and which has been proven to be there. The Irish Film Board needs to create a situation where investment is made. It is our experience that only with investment in creative talent, which the Irish Film Board has done for many years that the success can continue to be achieved. That is very important.

We were consulted on the importance of section 481 as the tax investment for feature film, TV drama and TV animation production. In Ireland the Irish Film Board estimates that as much as €200 million of eligible expenditure occurred on feature films, TV drama and TV animation alone in 2015 primarily as a result of section 481. As a result significant levels of international investment was brought to Ireland, for example, very major TV series, such as "Penny Dreadful" and now a major AMC TV series "Into the Badlands" are being made in Ireland as a result of these incentives.

We have the rich creation of jobs for cast and crew members and creative talent across the board as a result of this investment. We emphasise the major importance of section 481. We believe that in 2016 expenditure will increase to something in the order of €240 million plus. It will mostly be driven by projects funded from the international market.