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Bord Scannán na hÉireann /The Irish Film Board ("the Board") has warmly welcomed the decision of the Minister for Finance to continue tax relief for investment in the Irish film industry until the end of 2008 and his plan to increase the upper limit on investment to EUR 15 million per film from 2005. The Board is a statutory body whose remit is "to assist and encourage the making of films, and the development of a film industry in the State, having regard to the need for the expression of national culture through the medium of film-making". It deals with funding for the Irish film industry. Tax...

A number of recent legislative and other developments in Ireland are likely to affect the implementation of the country's freedom of information (FOI) legislation (see IRIS 1997-10: 8). On 11 April 2003, the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act was promulgated into law. One of the most significant amendments introduced by the Amendment Act was a considerable broadening of the definition of "Government" (for the purposes of determining exempt records ­ see further, Section 19 of the original 1997 FOI Act). This concept already included committees of Government, but Section 14 of the Amendment...

The European Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Ireland (under Article 228 of the EC Treaty) requesting it to comply with the judgment of the European Court of Justice of 19 March 2002, regarding its failure to ratify the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Paris Act 1971). EU and EEA Member States undertook to adhere to the Paris Act by January 1995. Ireland, however, failed to do so and the Commission opened infringement proceedings against it. The matter was referred to the European Court of Justice, which ruled that by failing to adhere to the Paris Act...

The Broadcasting (Major Events Television Coverage) (Amendment) Bill 2003 has been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament). The Act is in response to the long-running controversy over the sale by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) of the rights to live coverage of Ireland's home soccer matches to Sky Television for showing on a pay-per-view basis. An Act of 1999 allowed the Minister for Communications to draw up a list of designated events for showing on free-to-air television, but that was not done until 2002 when the FAI/Sky deal provided the impetus (see IRIS 2002-10: 9)....

The national film institutes of the 15 Member States of the European Union have made a common declaration on the importance of State aid for European films. This is the first time the film institutes have made a common statement. The national film institutes are publicly funded and were founded to support national and European film culture. In this common declaration the institutes express their concerns regarding the necessity for State aid for European films. The institutes are worried that the audio-visual sector in Europe will be left solely to the chances of free market forces. In the declaration,...