Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

As an amendment Bill, the legislation does one precise thing. It increases to €200 million the maximum amount of money which can be spent to support Irish film and make the country competitive for film making through the Irish Film Board. We have reached the £80 million ceiling which was put in place previously. I presume the idea of resetting the upper limit every few years is to provide the House with an opportunity to review the way in which money is being spent. We will have to revert in three or four years to produce a further amendment Bill to increase the threshold from €200 million to, one presumes, €300 million. It is a welcome approach. We often complain on this side of the House that the Government is not accountable or transparent enough in its approach to spending. The measure before us is one of the few positive examples of oversight whereby we are forced every few years to reconsider the way in which money has been spent.

I agree with Deputy Deenihan on promoting indigenous film production companies and the worry that we are not as competitive as we were a few years ago in attracting large-scale film productions to Ireland. Attracting productions is not only about specific films, but about promoting the island of Ireland. The Minister would receive support from Fine Gael if he were to constructively revise taxation policy in this area to make Ireland as competitive as it needs to be to attract film productions.

The main issue I wish to address is subtitling of films. There is a role for the Irish Film Board to ensure that everyone can access films in the cinema or on video or DVD if that is their choice. We have attempted half-heartedly to address subtitling in broadcasting legislation, which has not worked. We appealed to RTE, TV3 and others to put subtitling in place on a form of voluntary basis on a higher percentage of their programmes. The Minister will be aware of these matters as there is a strong deaf community in County Kerry. They have been campaigning for a long time to ensure that when members of the community attend the cinema, they can access films in the way the rest of us can.

The Irish Film Board may be the vehicle through which to address the issue. It is a matter on which I would like the Minister to respond. We are required to take action under Television Without Frontiers, the upcoming EU legislation. Governments will have to put in place plans to address the accessibility of programming and films through subtitling as well as other methods of increasing access by the deaf community. Consideration of the matter would be welcomed strongly by the deaf and hard of hearing community. It is not before time to act as other countries have already managed this very effectively. While we have made some improvements in the past ten years in Ireland, our provisions fall far short of what is required. As the necessary technology is available, there is no reason a deaf or hard of hearing person should be unable to access films at the cinema in the same way as those of us who can hear. I would appreciate in response as precise an outline of the Minister's views as possible.

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