Irish film industry is in the doldrums, says IBEC

The Irish film industry is in the doldrums and losing competitiveness against the British industry, Mr John Cummins, chairman of IBEC's Audiovisual Federation says.

Turnover has increased only marginally in the past two years and the indications for this year are for a similar outcome.

Inertia in Government policy and the failure to give the tax concessions necessary to attract home and foreign, mainly US, investment are cited as the main reasons. Mr Cummins, who is chairman of the independent film company, Agtel, accused the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, of dragging her feet on implementation of key recommendations in the "Development of the Irish Film and TV Industry" report. He said the Broadcasting Bill, which came before the Dail yesterday, was a year too late and left Ireland behind the rest of the world in the area of digital broadcasting.

He also accused the Government of undermining training for the film industry by cutting its subvention to Screen Training Ireland.

"The industry is suffering from a general lack of competitiveness and, with the reduction in all the tax breaks, the attractions of Section 481 are decreasing. There were no moves in the Budget to increase the tax relief allowable from 80 to 100 per cent.

"In the context of tax policy, we are seeing a reduction in interest from abroad. Generally, we feel the cost base of the industry, especially non-wage costs, are making us lose competitiveness a-viz vis-avis the UK," he says.

Mr Cummins said a restoration of parity in the tax breaks was the minimum the industry needed. "Other countries give substantially more to their TV and film industries and we are slipping behind. Unless you tie it in with the British system, the Irish package is unattractive. We're sheltering behind a very strong sterling. If that begins to move the other way, there will have to be improvements in the tax package," he says.

"I would be very worried we are losing control of our digital future in terms of independent production on our screens."

He was speaking at the launch in Dublin of the Audiovisual Federation's report on the industry for last year, which showed that overall output in the feature film and major TV drama area, which accounts for almost 80 per cent of production, rose from £101 million (€128 million) in 1998 to £115 million last year. But output in the independent TV production sector fell by 32 per cent from £27 million to £19.5 million.

Mr Tommy McCabe, director of the federation, said the Irish proportion of total expenditure was 80 per cent, an increase of 7 per cent. This reflected the significant increase in Irish expenditure on feature films and major TV dramas from £58.9 million to £72.8 million. This was offset, however, by a 26 per cent decrease in Irish expenditure on independent TV productions to £17.1 million and a 61 per cent fall in Irish expenditure on animation to £2.3 million from its 1998 level of £4.3 million.

Direct employment in the industry stood at 1,554 last year, slightly down on 1998. Blockbusters produced in 1999 included Angela's Ashes, David Copperfield and Ordinary Decent Criminal, while indigenous drama productions included All About Adam, Salt Water and Borstal Boy.