Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Department and I have a strong relationship with the film industry, with meetings and other interaction taking place on an ongoing basis. This is particularly true of the relationship with Fís Éireann, the State's agency for the development of the film industry which comes under the remit of my Department. Fís Éireann is funded by my Department and in budget 2019 I announced an increase of 14% in the 2019 Fís Éireann allocation, bringing it to €20.04 million.

Most recently, I met a delegation from Universal Pictures in Los Angeles. In October I met the Fís Éireann chair, Annie Doona, and the chief executive officer, James Hickey, along with officials of my Department, in September I visited the animation production studio of Brown Bag Films and in August I met Neil Jordan on the occasion of his donation of his archive to the National Library. I visited Troy Studios earlier in the year and, later this month, I hope to visit the set of "Sweetness in the Belly". Officials from my Department have recently met with the IBEC audio-visual committee, representatives from TG4 and representatives from the Irish Film Workers Association, among other engagements.

As part of the Government's audio-visual action plan, which was launched last June, I established an oversight steering group charged with the overall implementation of the plan's recommendations. I have put this in place as previous strategic plans have lacked an agency or group responsible for implementation. This steering group has met three times. The group includes representatives of all Departments and State agencies with involvement in the audio-visual industry. The steering group will report to me at regular intervals and is engaging proactively with stakeholders in the film industry.

Screen Training Ireland, which is a division of Screen Ireland, plans to hold an inaugural screen industry education forum on 19 November. The aim of this annual event is to bring screen industry stakeholders, education-training providers and policy influencers together to focus on the skills development challenges and opportunities of the screen sectors in Ireland. My Department is also engaging with Fís Éireann in regard to the holding of an industry forum, which the Deputy mentioned, in the near future.

See this speech in context