Ms Eibhl?n N? Mhunghaile:

The media side is different to culture because, in most cases, stand-alone companies apply directly. They do not need the same level of partnership that the culture side of the programme needs. That being said, we have a new scheme under the new programme called European co-development. For single projects, companies are obliged to work with a company in another EU country. It would have been useful, particularly for the Irish language, if the UK was still involved, because Irish language companies tend to work with Scotland and Wales often, while English language companies have many contacts in the UK. Nevertheless, on the audiovisual side, people are at the markets and work internationally. It is not a major problem to work with other European countries. There are slight complications relating to distribution. Ireland has always been bundled in with the UK as a territory for distribution. It is slightly more complicated for a European distributor to distribute a European film within Ireland and not have the UK attached. That will evolve and change in time as people adjust to new business models because of Brexit.

The only other adverse effect that we have seen in the first year of the programme is in the television programming scheme, where organisations can apply for funding for up to 20% of the production budget of television and online projects. Some of the television companies that broadcast in multiple territories are based in London, so that element of the funding is not considered eligible. It has caused an eligibility problem for at least one company that I know of. That is the reality, which we all have to adjust to and deal with as it is.