05/04/2005

Thanks to the recent 22% budget increase awarded to the Irish Film Board (IFB) by the Irish Arts Minister John O’Donoghue, the IFB has created a one-off Revolving Pre-production Fund (RPF) to cover cash-flow problems of IFB co-financed projects.
The RPF will operate in a ring-fenced manner from IFB’s other financial activities: projects financially supported by the IFB’s production investment, will have to apply separately for the short term cash-flowing facility up to a maximum of €150,000. No drawdown of the original investment shall be allowed until the cash-flow loan is repaid.
Commenting on the new RPF, IFB CEO Mark Woods said: “as this is a once-off revolving and ring-fenced fund approved as part of our 2005 budget bid, this is something for the Irish production community to look at using responsibly, ensuring prompt repayment so that it remains available for all the industry to use on a long term basis. We hope it goes some way to assisting during what can be a very stressful time for production”.

Other new IFB initiatives include:
- A confirmation that the Regional Support Fund created last year as a pilot initiative will now be a continuing programme under the title of the Regional Film & TV Fund,
- An18% increase for the Frameworks animation scheme,
- a continuation of the free Test Screenings programme launched last year,
- An increase to the cumulative per project threshold on Development Loans from €75,000 to €80,000 and of the base amount available to writers from €7,500 to €10,000.

The IFB’s total annual budget for production, development and training was increased last December from €10M to €12M.