Film and TV industry constrained by insurance woes, says Screen Ireland

Production insurance remains "a significant challenge" for the Irish film and television industry as it grapples with the risk of Covid-19 outbreaks on set, the Oireachtas media committee heard on Wednesday.

Screen Ireland chief executive Désirée Finnegan said insurance company policy exclusions meant the live action film and television sector would not have been in a position to return to shooting in the autumn without its €5 million production continuation fund.

The agency set up the “de-risking” fund, which provides a maximum of €500,000 to halted productions, after it received funding for this purpose in the Government’s July stimulus package.

“This fund was run as a pilot in 2020 and we believe it will still be required into 2021,” Ms Finnegan said.

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Some 12 feature films, three television productions, eight animated television shows and 13 documentaries supported by Screen Ireland will have been produced by the end of 2020, despite widespread disruption as a result of the pandemic.

While the volume of productions is “not too far off” 2019 levels, their value has fallen, she said. “It is really the lower budget productions that we have been able to get back up and running.”

Production is expected to pick up in 2021 as the industry catches up on postponed projects, with the first quarter looking “very busy” in particular and a greater regional spread in activity is likely.

The Screen Ireland boss said the organisation was "very supportive" of proposals to create a fund for Irish content through a levy on video-on-demand companies that target Irish audiences. Minister for Media Catherine Martin has indicated that further research will be undertaken on this question.

A 30 per cent European works quota for video-on-demand platforms, which will come into effect when member states transpose the EU’s revised audio-visual services media directive into national law, could be “really significant for Irish companies”, Ms Finnegan added.