Irish Film Board announces plans for budget windfall

A new pre-production cashflow fund and increases to development loans are just two highlights emanating from the recent Irish budget increase for Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (BSÉ/IFB).
The Revolving Pre-Production Fund (RPF) is designed to assist BSÉ/IFB co-financed productions which are fully financed and in the process of commencing pre-production where there is a time lag in cashflow as a result of financing and legal arrangements.
The RPF is a once-off Fund that will operate in a ringfenced manner from BSE/IFB's other financial activities. Productions with BSÉ/IFB production investments must apply separately for the short term cashflowing facility up to a maximum of €150,000. No drawdown of the original investment shall be allowed until the cashflow loan is repaid in full, together with an administration fee of 1.5%. Amounts received from the administration fee will be deposited to the RPF to gradually grow the fund for use by future productions.
"As this is a once-off revolving and ringfenced 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 terms basis," said BSÉ/IFB CEO Mark Woods. "We hope it goes some way to assisting during what can be a very stressful time for a production."
"The RPF is a real innovation and it, like the development and animation increases, are borne out of discussions with the Irish production sector," Woods added. "Delivery of these new initiatives and improvements are directly as a result of the 22% budget increase awarded to BSÉ/IFB by Arts Sport and Tourism Minister John O'Donoghue. Going forward, there shall be more strategically targeted enhancements and ancilliary services to support our core businesses of screen content attraction, development and production co-financing."
(GB)