Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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393. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the percentage of funds loaned to production companies by the Irish Film Board in each of the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 that were returned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39047/14]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Film Board (IFB) is the statutorily independent agency responsible for the development and promotion of the culture of Irish filmmaking together with the development of the Irish film industry, taking into account both indigenous filmmaking and major international film and television productions. I have no responsibility in relation to its day-to-day operational matters, including policies and the allocation of resources to different support programmes including development loans and production loans.

The IFB allocation of development and production loans provides cultural funding to the production of films involving Irish creative talent, including Irish screenplay writers, directors, actors, designers and animators.

The IFB shares in and recoups profits from revenues generated from sales for cinema, television, DVD, etc. It has to be borne in mind that this recoupment can occur over a number of years, for example, a film project that receives funding support in 2011 can recoup money for a number of years beyond 2011 or 2012. Likewise, the recoupment figure for a particular year will include monies from projects that historically received funding support in earlier years.

The 2013 accounts for the IFB are still being examined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, so I am not in a position to release those at this time. In 2011 the IFB advanced a total of €14,375,889 in feature development and production loans and recouped €1,179,854. In 2012 the IFB advanced a total of €12,698,869 in feature development and production loans and recouped €1,531,833.

These figures bring to 10% the recoupment rate on production feature loans advanced since the re-incorporation of the IFB in 1993. The cumulative percentage rate is given from 1993 which, as mentioned above, makes more sense than giving percentages for individual years as the films can earn revenues over a number of years.Internationally, this is seen as a reasonable return rate.