Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)

Before the sos I referred to the 12 part mini-series, "Titanic: Blood and Steel". This series is produced by Paul Myler for EPOS Films with the Italian DeAngelis group and it will provide approximately 200 jobs for Irish cast and crew. The series will focus on the designing and building of Titanic before its fateful first voyage. The 100-strong cast includes international names such as Neve Campbell, who appeared in "Scream" and "Wild Things"; Chris Noth, who appeared in "Sex and the City" and "The Good Wife"; Kevin Zegers who appeared in "Dawn of the Dead"; Derek Jacobi who appeared in "Gladiator", along with a strong Irish cast including Liam Cunningham, who appeared in "The Guard" and "The Wind that Shakes the Barley"; Ian McElhinney, who appeared in "Game of Thrones"; Michael McElhatton, who appeared in "Perrier's Bounty" and "Spin the Bottle"; Martin McCann, who appeared in "Killing Bono", and many others. This film has an all-star cast and I am confident it will be very successful.

The Irish Film Board incentivises expenditure in the regions of Ireland through regional support funding. From 2006 to 2010, for example, this funding contributed €3 million to 30 productions, with cumulative regional Irish expenditure totalling €18 million. This funding is now awarded based on the number of shoot days in the regional location. Counties that have benefited from hosting Irish Film Board film and television productions in recent years include counties Donegal, Mayo, Clare, Offaly, Galway, Cork and Sligo.

The first Bollywood blockbuster to shoot in Ireland, "Ek Tha Tiger", starring two of Bollywood's biggest stars, was filmed on location in Dublin over five weeks recently. It was estimated that the production contributed €1.5 million to the Irish economy and created more than 1,000 short-term jobs, with many Irish cast and crew involved in the shoot. The film used an abundance of Dublin locations for spectacular dance sequences and stunts. These included Trinity College, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Liffey quays, South King Street, Mount Street, the Shelbourne Hotel, Temple Bar and St. Stephen's Green. The film is to be distributed to 24 countries, thereby providing that images of Ireland and Dublin will be projected on the big screen across the globe, especially to new untapped demographic cohorts such as India's burgeoning middle and upper classes as well as the Indian diaspora throughout the world. This will provide promotional opportunities for Tourism Ireland to exploit Ireland as a tourism destination. According to Fáilte Ireland figures, 20% of all tourists who visited Ireland in 2010 did so because of images of the country they saw on film. This factor has increased considerably in importance. Not long ago only 2% gave this as a reason for visiting.

The Irish Film Board, with Government support, has adopted a strategic approach to meeting these challenges. Through its varied schemes and programmes it aims to assist projects at the earliest stage of development, throughout the pre-production phase and eventually to production and post-production stages. In addition, through its funding of Screen Training Irelandthe board addresses the needs of the industry at the entry level, with more than 500 people receiving training in all aspects of the film-making process each year. In this way training supports can be put in place to match the requirements of the market place and render its participants relevant to the sector they want to enter.

This clearly demonstrates a long-term commitment by the Government to the Irish audio-visual industry. The industry is a very important one with substantial levels of employment and significant inward investment. The Irish audio-visual content production sector review, prepared for the Irish Film Board and published in December of 2008, established the 2007 value of the audio-visual production sector in Ireland at over €500 million, with direct employment figures of 6,000. An earlier survey identified that in 1992 direct employment was 1,000. This demonstrates an industry that has grown very significantly and which has the potential to grow even further with the correct nurturing and support.

The significant challenge now is to continue to provide as supportive an environment as is possible. The audio-visual industry is smart in that it combines tradition with the advent of each new technology - it is about tradition, translation and transmission. The sector provides natural alliances between education and culture and is, therefore, uniquely positioned to lead, contribute to and enhance the smart economy. In that regard, I recently published a five-year strategy for the sector, Creative Capital: Building Ireland's Audiovisual Creative Economy.The report arose as a second phase to the Irish audio-visual content production sector review, to which I referred. This report will deliver on issues regarding talent development, convergence, sectoral growth, education and digital opportunities for Ireland, as well as reporting on industry leadership, State agency roles and innovation. It will provide a road map for coming years and will assist in enabling the domestic audio-visual content production sector to develop into an internationally based sector for product and services over the five year period 2011 to 2015 and increase employment levels to 10,000.

Success in recent few years at film festivals and award ceremonies is one measure that confirms that policy in this area is working. The year 2010 was a great one for Irish film-making, with Irish talent picking up awards and nominations and some of the industry's highest accolades. Highlights include the Irish film industry receiving five Academy Award nominations, three of these being for the IFB supported films, "The Secret of Kells", "Granny O 'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" and "The Door". In addition, the Irish animator Richard Baneham and his team picked up the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for his work on "Avatar". Other highlights include "All Good Children" being selected for the prestigious directors' fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival,"His & Hers"picking up a prize for excellence in cinematography at the Sundancefestival and Irish films being selected for some of the world's most renowned festivals including Toronto, Tribeca, Edinburgh and London.

Highlights for home grown production in 2011 include Rebecca Daly's "The Other Side of Sleep", which has been selected for the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival as well as for the directors' fortnight at Cannes in 2011, and Thaddeus O'Sullivan's "Stella Days", starring Martin Sheen. International film productions which filmed in 2010 included the major US feature film, "Haywire", directed by Steven Soderbergh,"Albert Nobbs", selected for the Toronto International Film Festival and starring Glenn Close in what many judge to be an Oscar-worthy performance and Paolo Sorrentino's "This Must Be The Place", starring Sean Penn, which was selected for official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

In tandem with supports for the Irish Film Board, my Department's primary operational role in supporting the film sector scheme relates to the administration of elements of the section 481 tax relief scheme. In 2010 a total of 57 projects - up from 44 projects in 2009 - were approved for funding through section 481, with an Irish spend of €164.65 million. These 57 projects supported substantial employment for crew, cast and extras and had the effect of maintaining and creating jobs in a very difficult climate while at the same time producing a product that will help to sell Ireland abroad.

To date in 2011, a total of 38 projects have been approved for funding with an Irish spend of €78.1 million. Two of the bigger projects are "Astérix and Obélix - God Save Britannia", starring Gérard Dépardieu, and a major television series, "Titanic: Blood and Steel". Although at this stage it looks as if we will not reach the Irish spend of last year, none the less the number of projects remains high. It should be pointed out that 2010 was a truly exceptional year.

Section 481 relief has now been extended until the end of 2015. This will assist in giving the sector continuity and certainty for the future and allows projects to proceed in the knowledge that this important underpinning of the industry will be in place for the next four years. In an increasingly competitive international environment, I am glad to state that the board has been able to continue to discharge its vital role of promoting our indigenous film industry and marketing Ireland as a location for international productions. Our cultural and artistic identity as a nation gives us a competitive advantage which must be exploited now more than ever. The benefits of high levels of film and television production in Ireland will include increased international investment in the economy, increased employment in this sector, positive spin-off effects for promoting Ireland as a tourist location and the improvement of Ireland as an industrial location for all aspects of creative endeavours.

I appreciate the co-operation of Deputies in the enactment of this short but important Bill. I commend the Bill to the House.

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