Screen Ireland has announced further details of the €3 million TV Drama funding launched by Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht Catherine Martin in July, to stimulate large-scale production activity across Irish TV drama.

To date, an additional €900,000 has been awarded across five television drama projects, to help ensure these projects can begin production as soon as possible, and create employment opportunities for the sector.

Projects in receipt of funding include an adaptation of Lisa McInerney's Glorious Heresies, to be produced by The Film Workshop; Hidden Assets, to be produced by Soho Moon; Kin, to be produced by Metropolitan; Grace to be produced by Subotica; and The Dry, to be produced by Element Pictures. It is expected that a number of these projects will film on location in Galway, Cork, Claire and Limerick into early 2021.

There will also be a specific focus on regional development, diversity and emerging talent – with €600,000 invested in a new National Talent Development Academy  for drama and scripted production, based outside of the Dublin/Wicklow region. Details for this new initiative will be announced shortly.

Screen Ireland will also provide €1 million in funding for a number of joint development initiatives across Comedy, Young People’s drama programming, Irish language TV drama and a diverse range of short films with the leading Irish broadcasters including RTÉ, VMTV and TG4.

These stimulus measures follow on from the opening of the Production Continuation Fund, to support industry recovery by de-risking costs associated with COVID-19.

“Throughout the pandemic, Screen Ireland’s focus has been to support the sector in getting back into production as safely as possible," says Screen Ireland Chair Dr. Annie Doona. "There are now a number of projects up and running with strict COVID-19 guidelines in place. The industry is demonstrating resilience and creativity in making sure that production can go ahead, whilst also keeping strict protocols and procedures in place to control the spread of COVID-19.

“As the pandemic continues to evolve, the stimulus support fund made available from Government has provided us with a clear path of investment for the television sector, ensuring further opportunity for employment and creative development in the months ahead and into 2021. The establishment of a new National Talent Academy within the sector and based in the regions will also help to provide an engine of expert growth and skills development as part of a regional, diversity and inclusion roadmap.”