37 minute read
Keen on Green
InBUSINESSnBUSINESS
Left to right: Tommy Keane, Operations Director, Conor McQuaid, CEO and Chairman, Irish Distillers and Leo Clancy, CEO, Enterprise Ireland
PLAN FOR IRELAND’S FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL DISTILLERY
Irish Distillers is to invest €50m in Midleton Distillery over the next four years to deliver a carbon neutral operation by the end of 2026. e ambitious plan will involve a roadmap of several ground-breaking projects, which will see Midleton Distillery entirely phase out the use of fossil fuels to power its operation. “With the climate crisis at a critical juncture, Irish Distillers is committed to reducing our environmental impact across our entire value chain. An area that we cannot ignore is how we power our distillery,” said Tommy Keane, Operations Director at Irish Distillers. “While the technical challenges the team face in transforming our operations are considerable, we believe that with the help and support of our partners at home and across the globe, this is possible.”
Karen O’Connor, General Manager, Datapac
GREEN TALK
Car dealer gets ahead with solar PV
Finlay Motor Group in Naas, Co Kildare has become one of the country’s first commercial sites to be granted an energy export connection to the grid through the newly established ESB Networks MiniGeneration process. Pinergy SolarElectric has installed 60kWp of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on Finlay Motor Group’s roof and made one of the first NC7 export connections in Ireland. This will enable the Ford dealership to take advantage of the Micro-generation Support Scheme. “The investment in solar PV will allow us to benefit from lower energy costs, security of energy supply and eventually earn an income from our excess energy,” said Gary Finlay, Dealer Principal at Finlay Motor Group, which has previously completed a project to replace every bulb on its site to LED units and is looking at a project to harvest rainwater.
Prof Andrew Keane, Director, UCD Energy Institute
Gary Finlay, Dealer Principal at Finlay Motor Group and Michael Norton, Head of Commercial Sales at Pinergy SolarElectric
CLIMATE AND TECH
A survey of 150 Irish SME owners by Datapac has found that 54% say the climate change agenda is more important than or equal to price when it comes to IT purchasing decisions. “Organisations need to fully re-assess and strengthen their IT and security infrastructures and strategically plan how their IT can best support a greener, more sustainable, hybrid future,” said Karen O’Connor, General Manager, Datapac.
COVER STORY
Already delivering the fastest broadband speeds in Ireland, Virgin Media Business is firmly committed to ensuring that connectivity, security and reliability continues for businesses of all sizes.
Virgin Media Ireland recently appointed Aidan D’Arcy as Vice-President of Wholesale and Business with immediate e ect, reporting to CEO Tony Hanway. Having rst joined the business as an engineering graduate in 2004, in his new role D’Arcy will be responsible for the strategic growth and development of Virgin Media Business, while also working closely with the Tech Solutions and Consumer functions.
An important area of responsibility for D’Arcy will be to oversee the expansion of Virgin Media’s full- bre network – the focus of a current €200m investment by the company. e upgrade is expected to take three years to complete and create over 500 jobs, eventually delivering speeds of up to 10Gbps (Gigabits per second) to 1 million premises nationwide.
Aidan D’Arcy, Vice-President of Wholesale and Business, Virgin Media Ireland
“Virgin Media’s full-fibre investment is an exciting development for customers across Ireland. It demonstrates our commitment to providing the best-connected entertainment experiences to Irish consumers and provides a step towards a 10G broadband service,” says D’Arcy.
The investment also offers the potential to work with other service providers at a wholesale level, he adds. “Wholesale is an interesting opportunity for Virgin Media and we will continue to monitor any potential place we could take in this area.”
Businesses will see benefits from going full-fibre from the perspective of speed superiority being maintained with flexibility to upgrade to 1G and also to add on tailored business services such as Virgin Media’s Cloud Voice product and Business WiFi.“Additionally, our business TV offering is going from strength to strength with our TV360 platform and some exciting current and new content in the pipeline,” D’Arcy notes.
PARTNERING WITH PURPOSE
Virgin Media Business is very mindful of the unprecedented challenges facing businesses at the moment and is helping them as a trustworthy and reliable partner.
“Certainty is a key condition that businesses need and arguably the most illusive one over the past few years. Covid-19 was a difficult period for many businesses to navigate through and now there are fresh challenges emerging from inflation and supply-chain uncertainty – to name just two. On top of this, cyber threats are more prevalent now than ever,” says D’Arcy.
“Robust protections for businesses are important as we see the increasing use of cloud and digital services. Virgin Media’s connectivity portfolio from SDWAN to Dedicated Internet Access and broadband all have options for cybersecurity enablement. If any customer doesn’t have cyber protection – which we would encourage all businesses to have – we have options for them to review this with our expert team.”
The Central Statistics Office’s ‘Survey on E-Commerce and ICT 2021’ revealed that 59% of businesses had purchased cloud computing services, up from 51% in 2020. It also showed that one third of enterprises made use of interconnected devices or systems that can be monitored or controlled remotely via the Internet.
With the more widespread move towards a more digital future, it has become essential for businesses to be equipped with better connectivity
and collaboration to fully embrace this transition. e gap in connectivity capabilities between larger enterprises and SMEs became apparent during the pandemic. However, the pandemic also presented an opportunity for smaller businesses to bridge the divide and increase their appetite for digital transformation.
In its white paper, e Road to the Digital Future of SMEs, IDC stated: “From Voice-over Internet Protocol [VoIP] to accessing the cloud, the bene ts of exible working, improving digital marketing and enhancing customer experience mean that reliable, high Internet-connection speed is a necessity for the future.” According to D’Arcy, this is especially true for SMEs taking their rst steps towards a future that looks exponentially more digital than ever before and where hybrid working will become the norm. e third annual National Remote Working Survey, released by NUI Galway in May, revealed that, of those employees who could work remotely, 52% were currently working hybrid, 40% fully remotely and only 8% were fully onsite. Compiled from responses from over 8,400 employees, the research highlighted that 30% of all respondents indicated that they would change job if their future remote working preferences were not facilitated.
“With many workplaces adopting a hybrid model of working, reliable and fast connectivity lies at the heart of this journey for small rms as they endeavour to empower their people to do their job wherever they are, whenever it matters and however works best for everyone,” says D’Arcy.
“Good connectivity is crucial for SMEs in helping people to collaborate better with colleagues and customers remotely. It has the potential to improve productivity for individuals working remotely, in the o ce or anywhere else – allowing people to do their jobs in a healthy, sustainable way in this new normal.”
BACKING BUSINESS
Another important way that Virgin Media Business has shown its commitment to SMEs in recent years has been its #BackingBusiness initiative, which involved a €1m support fund being pledged in 2020.
“Our goal is to create opportunities for all businesses to grow through digital technology. With #BackingBusiness, we wanted to support them by sharing their inspiring stories of resilience and promote their businesses across our Virgin Media television channels and our social media platforms,” D’Arcy explains.
“With a reach of around 2.7 million people every week across our channels, we were able to support over 300 businesses through promotions, helping them to get back to business. We took our shows on the road, broadcasting on Ireland AM, Elaine, e Six O’Clock Show and e Tonight Show from Limerick, Cork and Kilkenny, showcasing some wonderful local businesses.”
Virgin Media Business then took the initiative a step further in partnership with Digital Business Ireland (DBI), Permanent TSB, Milk Bottle Labs and Local Enterprise O ces. Five successful applicants bene ted from a complete digital transformation to enhance their e-commerce o ering and trading platform so they could compete globally. e digital transformation package, funded by Permanent TSB, included a professionally built e-commerce store on Shopify by Milk Bottle Labs; one year of free bre business broadband with Virgin Media Business; dedicated training in digital marketing from their Local Enterprise O ce; business development support and full membership of DBI’s extensive network; and expert support to boost their digital delivery.
“ e idea was to help these small businesses make the most of new online consumer spending patterns with support from industry experts to help raise their e-commerce o ering to the next level,” says D’Arcy.
“#BackingBusiness proved so popular and impactful to indigenous Irish SMEs in 2020 and 2021 that we will be continuing the programme in 2022 and beyond. e next phase of the initiative will bring together two of our passions – sustainability and supporting Irish businesses – and the focus will remain on innovative, forward-thinking and ambitious businesses.”
A no-brainer network
Virgin Media Business’ network provides reliable and high-speed connectivity based on the three pillars of ‘Connect’, ‘Secure’ and ‘Empower’.
CONNECT
With such rapid change, one thing has the power to hold your progress back or drive it forward faster: the quality of your network infrastructure. As well as paving the way for people to work flexibly, securely and e iciently, having a robust network in place allows your business to scale up and down as required.
SECURE
Having a secure network helps to protect your business against cyber crime so you can keep your employee and customer data safe as more people work remotely. Security and connectivity should work as one and as such cyber security should be embedded into your network.
EMPOWER
While empowerment starts with culture and leadership, technology makes it possible. Businesses need to put the right tools in people’s hands wherever they happen to be, from communication platforms to mobile technology, underpinned by secure connectivity.
Irish companies founded within the past six years are impressing investors lately with their innovative devices to improve patients’ quality of life and recovery, writes SORCHA CORCORAN.
MEDTECH MOMENTUM
Marine coral being harvested by Zoan BioMed in Connemara Gerry Clarke, CTO, Dr Brendan Boland, CEO, and Fiona Mangan, engineer, Loci Orthopaedics
In June, Loci Orthopaedics was awarded over €8m in funding and nancial support from the European Commission via the highly competitive European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Programme – a major validation for the new implant it has developed for the treatment of thumb base joint arthritis. e Galway-based company will receive €2.5m in grant funding initially, followed by a €5.5m equity investment, supported by the European Investment Bank.
Over 30 million people in the EU and 20 million people in the US are a ected by thumb base joint arthritis, a condition which causes pain and decreased hand function. Driven to improve the lives of su erers and address the “Because of its unmet clinical need they identi ed, Dr Brendan Boland comparative and Gerry Clarke founded Loci Orthopaedics in 2017 as a similarities to human spin-out from NUI Galway, University College Cork and KU Leuven in Belgium. “We used the most recent biomechanics research to ensure the implant we designed fully recreates the natural biomechanics of the joint for superior clinical outcomes,” bone structure and inherent strength and purity, marine coral is a highly e ective bone grafting substitute.” says Clarke.
“To receive this level of funding is a massive endorsement of the need for a better treatment for this crippling condition. It will enable us to complete a clinical trial we started recently and pursue regulatory clearance in the EU and US, prior to full-scale commercialisation and clinical use,” adds Boland.
Revolutionising bone repair
Also in the eld of orthopaedics, Zoan BioMed recently announced a partnership with Swedish 3D bioprinting company Cellink, which it
Colin Henehan, HBAN’s Medtech Syndicate with Tim Jones and Dr Michelle Tierney, Co-founders, SymPhysis Medical
hopes will lead to a future where bone breaks can be repaired by 3D printing bones made from marine coral.
Founded in 2016 by Declan Clarke and Ronnie Robins, Zoan BioMed designs and develops orthopaedic devices from the ethical and sustainable cultivation of marine coral, grown at its state-of-the-art facility on the shores of Lough Inagh in Connemara. Along with leading clinicians around the world, Zoan BioMed recognised the huge potential of marine coral to improve patient outcomes and reduce the costs associated with bone repair.
“Because of its comparative similarities to human bone structure and inherent strength and purity, marine coral is a highly e ective bone gra ing substitute,” says Stephen Wann, CEO, Zoan BioMed. e company has developed the world’s rst, scalable indoor coral production system with ISO 13485 accreditation. When harvested, re ned into granules and implanted by a surgeon into the bone trauma site, the material accelerates healing, safeguards against infection, reduces surgeon operating time and ultimately gets patients back on their feet and enjoying life quicker.
“With Cellink, we have the ideal partner that can build upon the encouraging trial results we have observed with our coral material. It is incredibly exciting to envisage that we can mimic and improve these results with a 3D-printed solution that can o er customised patient devices,” says Wann.
To date, Zoan BioMed has been funded through private investment, along with backing from the European Fund, Enterprise Ireland, Western Development Commission and Údarás Na Gaeltachta. In May it announced its latest fundraising round of up to €5m, to allow it to scale and grow internationally.
Easing discomfort
Meanwhile, three angel syndicates from the Halo Business Angel Network led a recent €1.925m investment in SymPhysis Medical, which is developing a device that eases the discomfort and distress of uid in the chest for cancer patients undergoing palliative care.
Company founders Dr Michelle Tierney and Tim Jones uncovered the under-met need for e ective treatment of uid in the chest, or malignant pleural e usion, as part of the NUI Galway BioInnovate Fellowship programme. e condition is experienced by roughly half of metastatic cancer patients and can cause severe shortness of breath and chest pain. O en patients are tted with an invasive and uncomfortable pleural catheter.
Using novel technologies, Tierney and Jones are working on a discreet, patientcentric drainage device called ‘Releaze’, which is less invasive to place than leading competitor devices on the market and can be removed a er just 30 days.
Crucially, a usability study carried out with the UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing has shown that the device can be managed by patients themselves without the assistance of a nurse. “ e ability to successfully drain the uid and to perform this with con dence in an outpatient setting
will greatly bene t patients,” said Dr David Breen, a leading interventional pulmonologist in Galway University Hospital, who has been advising the team for the past four years.
SymPhysis Medical has led two patent applications relating to the novel aspects of the technology used to create the new device. According to the co-founders, the funding will be used to complete product development and target Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance. It will also help the company to expand its team from three to seven people by the end of this year.
“Following FDA clearance, we expect test market sales in the US to reach €1.5m in the rst year, starting in Q4 2023. We are already working with two of the top ve cancer care centres in the US. e team will quickly follow the rollout there by seeking the CE Mark in the EU and, by Q4 2025, we expect turnover to reach €49m,” says Jones.
Addressing air bubbles
Moving down to Cork, Gasgon Medical recently raised €2.25m as part of a funding round led by DBIC Ventures and including a number of private investors in the US. is comes on top of the company’s success in winning a €3m Fast Track to Innovation grant from the EIC last December and being awarded the top Seedcorn prize of €100,000 in 2021.
Founded by Vincent Forde in 2018, Gasgon Medical has developed a low-cost device called AirVault that attaches directly to intravenous (IV) drips in hospitals to eliminate air
Gasgon Medical Founder and CEO Vincent Forde with nurse Niamh Allen at a trial of AirVault
bubbles. ese can be fatal for patients if they enter the bloodstream and potentially dangerous for nurses, who must break the IV line if air bubbles form, which exposes them to medications that can be harmful over time.
“We are currently carrying out pilot studies of our patent-pending technology in hospitals in Ireland, Europe and the US. ey see it as a no-brainer and our aim is for every IV system worldwide to have an AirVault attached as the de-facto solution to eliminating air bubbles,” says Forde.
Currently employing six people, Gasgon Medical plans to hire in Ireland and the US with this new round of funding. e money will also be used for marketing and expanding into new markets, including veterinary and human use.
“ e resources required to track and eliminate air from IVs is a constant drain for nurses and health systems. Our priority is in accelerating development work to attain regulatory approval, to be ready to launch products into hospitals, with an initial focus on the US,” says Forde.
R PLAY
Trading platform InvoiceFair is providing an alternative funding source to SMEs at a time when the need for capital to grow is greater than ever. Its Co-founder and CEO Helen Cahill is a 2022 EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.
Q: What led to you to founding InvoiceFair in 2015 with Peter Brady and Ivan Fox?
HC: We all became aware that ambitious, mid-sized companies were struggling to nd growth funding that matched their business circumstances, the scale of the opportunity they had or was designed to help them ful ll their true potential. A clear lack of innovation, fresh thinking or any evidence of truly understanding business was painfully clear.
Whatever funding was available was full of restrictions. We also felt that the traditional funders adopt a sort of parent/child relationship with their customers. We set about looking at ways that we could change this outdated attitude and put control of the nancial destiny of businesses developing truly innovative solutions into their own hands. e fact that our backgrounds were diverse was crucial. Ivan and I both had over 25 years’ experience in nancial services and investment management, while Peter spent much of his career in manufacturing, so could empathise with companies trying to grow.
Q: What is compelling about what you’re doing with InvoiceFair?
HC: We don’t ‘lend’ money. Instead, we help companies to fund their own future by converting their sales orders, work in progress, invoices or future revenues into upfront growth capital.
We focus our attention on what we describe as the ‘growth funding gap’ and how we can close it. e idea is that the speed that cash is released from the business it ‘wins’ has a direct impact on a company’s growth trajectory.
Our legal structure means we have fewer restrictions around customer concentration or geographic limits. Unlike traditional providers, which lend o a single balance sheet, we can spread the risk across multiple institutional funders – all with diverse risk appetites but all focused on the quality of your customer receivables.
Q: How have you grown and developed the business?
HC: InvoiceFair has provided over €1bn in funding to hundreds of scaling companies across all sectors in the past ve years. e team has expanded to 35, with 20 of them joining in the past 15 months alone. We have an extremely high-performing leadership team, packed with subject experts across all of the key functions – sales, marketing, funding, nance, trading and technology – to drive the business forward.
We have a large number of experienced accountants, which we feel is an important skillset in solution sales, underwriting and the risk monitoring process. We’re investing heavily in the digital platform, both from a customer experience perspective but also how we ingest data from open banking, accounting and billing platform integrations to augment all of these critical work ows. is results in safer underwriting and decision making for institutional funders and faster, more exible funding for the end customer. e company started by o ering single invoice nance on a single or multiple basis. As we became more successful, we started to expand our o ering and now uniquely we o er funding solutions across the entire credit and trading cycle.
Q: How have your solutions made a di erence to client companies?
HC: Incredibly for many growing companies, winning business can o en be the start of a credit crunch. At various stages of a project, they’ll need to fund any number of working capital items such as supplier payments and workforce obligations. Releasing funds from this ‘won business’ earlier in the cycle of a project allows them to manage the contract more e ectively, negotiate better terms with their suppliers, improve supplier and workforce relationships as well as plan and fund other projects – in other words, scale.
Equally we see many companies whose real assets are their loyal customers and the recurring revenue generated from selling to them. While traditional nancial providers don’t like unsecured lending of this nature, InvoiceFair o ers a revenue-based nance solution where we advance funds today, based on the next three months’ recurring revenues. erea er we advance up to 70% of the monthly revenue which is generally always growing. Access to this type of funding, which is directly aligned to a company’s growth in monthly recurring revenue, can postpone dilution and push equity raising 12-18 months down the road when the company valuation is signi cantly higher.
Q: What potential do you see for InvoiceFair going forward?
HC: Alternative nance represents a small – but growing – percentage of the overall business funding market. For now, from our base in Dublin, we aim to lead the growth of alternative, t-for-purpose funding solutions, making businesses aware of the growing number of choices they have in the UK and Irish markets. We already operate in other geographies and will certainly be looking beyond Ireland and the UK in the near future.
Q: Any other news or future plans you would like to share?
HC: We’ve a packed pipeline of innovation in the works. Apart from ongoing product innovation, we’re looking at ways to innovate funds collection to reduce debtor friction and investigating emerging technologies, data and the use of arti cial intelligence and blockchain to underpin the credit engine behind our business. We have a constant and relentless drive towards self-service and automation that will allow our customers to truly take control of their nances and fund their own future.
MENTOR: PEARSE FLYNN
HYDROGEN HERO
Cork-native and seasoned entrepreneur Pearse Flynn is putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to finding solutions to the energy crisis and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, writes SORCHA CORCORAN.
A er decades living and working overseas, Pearse Flynn now chooses to spend most of his time in the small, picturesque village of Ballycotton, Co Cork where he grew up. Chatting to local shermen there switched him on to the idea of investing in green energy companies. “I saw the struggles they were experiencing and wanted to do something. I visited towns in Scotland and saw how renewable energy projects were transforming these communities and wanted that for Ireland. Given the vast amount of wind that Ireland has, I knew that the same could take place here,” he says.
Flynn has invested €10m of his own money so far into a group of companies focused on the delivery of clean and renewable energy – Green Rebel, EIH2 and ActionZero, which recently
REMOVING FOSSIL FUELS
Pearse Flynn’s climate technology company ActionZero recently announced the establishment of its new manufacturing, research and development centre at the former Borg Warner facility in Tralee, Co Kerry. Projecting sales growth of €50m over the next two years, ActionZero will continue to develop and expand its EscoPod product range from the new facility where it will employ up to 50 people. The EscoPod modular thermal energy system uses innovative heat-pump technologies to decarbonise heat by completely removing fossil fuels across industrial, enterprise and global consumer markets. “Through our patented design and engineering integration, the EscoPod provides fossil-fuel-free heating and chilling at higher temperatures, efficiencies and reliability. This avoids the need for the expensive retrofitting of buildings and business interruption,” says Flynn. “ActionZero is rolling out the EscoPod technology across a number of key clients, including Kepak and Bon Secours Health System, with a combined deal value of €20m.”
Entrepreneur Pearse Flynn
moved into state-of-the-art headquarters at Penrose Dock in Cork City Centre. Over 100 people are employed by the three companies, with plans to grow that number to 150 by the end of the year.
“In the earlier parts of my career, I worked in sectors that were based on convincing people to buy things they didn’t need. But the green energy sector is a chance to help communities and the planet and give something back,” says Flynn.
Now aged 58, Flynn’s career has certainly been high-flying. A graduate of Cork Institute of Technology, he emigrated to Scotland after college and held impactful senior roles in major tech companies including Compaq and Alcatel before becoming a serial entrepreneur. The businesses
he got involved in ranged from a call centre operator to Scottish football club Livingston.
In 2007, he purchased Creditfix, which has since grown to become one of the largest personal insolvency practices in the UK and one of Flynn’s most successful businesses. It is now part of the Flynn family’s Finbora Group, along with EIH2, Green Rebel and Action Zero – and hospitality ventures Cush and Sea Church in Ballycotton.
“When I look at potential investments, I want to know what the risks are; whether costs are increasing or decreasing and identify untapped opportunities. In the renewable sector, I see a resource that will never run out – unlike fossil fuels, wind is completely renewable. That, coupled with the decreasing cost of renewable electricity makes this sector very attractive,” he says.
Providing site investigation and data services to the offshore wind sector, Green Rebel recently announced a partnership with Energia to carry out geophysical surveys for Energia’s proposed new offshore wind farm off the coast of Co Waterford.
EIH2 was established in March 2021 as Ireland’s first green hydrogen company. Flynn believes it will become “a key enabler of Ireland’s transition to a clean, independent energy future” as it works hard to kick-start and grow Ireland’s hydrogen economy. So far, EIH2 has been involved in a number of feasibility studies on green hydrogen facilities in Ireland. “In parallel with our joint venture with Zenith Energy at Bantry Bay, we’re also looking at a number of other sites along the western seaboard,” says Flynn.
“Right now, Ireland imports over 50% of our energy but our abundant wind means we could change that. Renewable electricity from wind can be used to separate hydrogen out of water to use instead of fossil fuels,” he explains.
According to Flynn, Ireland has the potential to generate 75GW of renewable electricity from offshore wind. He and the EIH2 team are focusing on the opportunity they see to bring excess wind energy ashore and convert it to green hydrogen directly for export, and without connecting into the grid.
“This would be a game changer for Ireland, helping the island to become a net exporter of green energy in a relatively short space of time. As well as meeting our own need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, we could supply as much as 2.5% of Europe’s projected electricity needs by 2050.
“Not all energy needs can be met efficiently by electricity – for heavy goods vehicles or airplanes for example. Also, energy can’t be easily stored as electricity so we need a zero-carbon fuel to replace fossil fuels for when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. For these reasons, we must develop green hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure to support the renewable electricity.”
Flynn is convinced that the offshore wind and green hydrogen industry will help Ireland to achieve its climate ambitions while creating clean, green jobs and an enduring source of revenue for our citizens through exporting wind as hydrogen and giving hope to young people. “Ireland has a chance to demonstrate leadership in green energy as well as supporting Europe to become the first climate-neutral continent,” he says.
PEARSE FLYNN ON…
GIVING SOMETHING BACK “To support my village, I’ve invested in a number of businesses creating employment; now I’m looking at establishing a housing trust so our staff can afford to live locally.” GAINING INDEPENDENCE “We have 800% of the energy we need for a green independent energy future, which means we can help Europe achieve independence from Russian oil and gas, thus playing a huge role in establishing a new energy map.” CORK AS A KEY LOCATION “We are looking to significantly invest in Ireland’s green economy and we believe Cork has a key strategic role to play in that growing sector.”
STREAM of consciousness
Ireland could be responsible for many more worldwide TV drama hits like ‘Normal People’ when a levy on pay TV and services such as Netflix comes to pass. But the film and TV sector says this isn’t happening fast enough, writes SORCHA CORCORAN.
In May, global production and distribution giant Fremantle announced it had acquired a majority stake in Element Pictures – the independent Irish production company behind the worldwide phenomenon that was ‘Normal People’ in 2020 and more recently ‘Conversations with Friends’. is is a major stamp of approval for Irish creative talent at a time when the indigenous screen production industry appears to be on a roll in terms of international recognition. For example, feature lm ‘God’s Creatures’ produced by Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly of Sixty-Six Pictures played in the Cannes Director’s Fortnight in May and Irish short lm ‘LAMB’ – produced by Copper Alley Productions in Dublin — was o cially selected from 7,200 short lm submissions to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in June.
Aoife Du in in the short film LAMB, which premiered at Tribeca
Former CEO of Screen Ireland, lm producer and media policy consultant James Hickey is Chair of Copper Alley Productions and father of its Co-founders Lara and Jack Hickey. Always a prominent gure in the industry, he is one of many calling on the Government to urgently introduce a levy on pay TV and streaming services to boost homegrown production in line with other EU member states. e Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, passed recently by Seanad Éireann and due to go to the Dáil, provides for such a levy to create a new National Media Creative Content Fund.
An Indecon report published in December stated that a 3% levy on advertising and subscriptions collected for pay TV and streaming services would create an annual fund of €25m a year, which could deliver €100m in indigenous production activity a year. e new Media Commission proposed in the Bill would be authorised to introduce it.
Funds raised would allow the Irish production sector
Former CEO of Screen Ireland James Hickey Funding from the levy could mean an extra six TV drama series a year totally focused on Irish cultural content with the potential to be streamed internationally.”
to compete internationally by bringing local stories to a global audience – a compelling prospect in light of the increased consumption of international premium content on commercial services.
“Minister Catherine Ryan still holds the view that the Media Commission should decide how and when to introduce the levy. But the Media Commission is not even formed yet and is likely to be very focused on online safety when it is. is is di cult from an industry point of view as we feel an opportunity is being lost. e Broadcasting Authority of Ireland needs to start work and research on the levy now,” says James Hickey.
“Particularly for high-end TV drama and lms, if 25% of the costs of production are covered, it makes it much easier for a producer to raise the other 75% from other sources. e average six-episode TV drama costs around €10m to make. Funding from the levy could mean an extra six TV drama series a year totally focused on Irish cultural content with the potential to be streamed internationally.”
RECORD-BREAKING YEAR
According to Screen Ireland, the total production spend across feature lm, documentary, animation and TV drama in the Irish economy in 2021 was €500m – 40% higher than 2019’s previous record spend. e sector is currently supporting 12,000 local jobs.
“Irish production companies have been developing really strongly in the past few years. We do have very successful production activity, but much of this comes from inward investment. It has created highquality jobs and strengthened Ireland’s production capacity, which is all very good for the economy. But there needs to be more balance and greater focus on work created by Irish creative talent,” says Hickey. e Screen Ireland gures show that international production activity grew by 45% in 2021. A standout project was Disney’s ‘Disenchanted’, which was lmed on location in Dublin and Wicklow and hired up to 98% Irish crew, representing 1,000 jobs on the production.
Local Irish lm activity did increase by 52% in 2021 compared to 2019, reaching the highest year ever for the category. Since Screen Ireland’s introduction of development funding for TV drama in 2015, local TV drama spend has gone up by 145%. e agency expects upcoming new series ‘Holding’, based on Graham Norton’s novel, ‘ e Dry’ and ‘Redemption’ to make waves with Irish and international audiences later this year.
“Irish production companies are creating wonderful lms and TV series. ‘An Cailín Ciúin’ breaking the UK and Ireland box o ce record for an Irish language lm [earning more than €600,000 since its release in May] is a particularly interesting development,” says Hickey.
SKILLS & TALENT
COMING TO THE FOR E
In an increasingly competitive labour market, awareness is rising among employers that introducing a four-day working week could be the new magnet for talent, writes SORCHA CORCORAN.
Seventeen Irish companies are currently trialing a four-day working week as part of a pioneering, six-month pilot programme run by Four Day Week Ireland and in collaboration with 4 Day Week Global. The first of its kind in the world, the trial started in February and has involved upfront support in the form of training, mentoring, networking and research since last November.
“Since we started promoting the Irish trial in June 2021, momentum behind the idea globally has come on to a huge extent. We recently started a similar programme in the US involving 40 companies and one in the UK with over 70 companies taking part. Programmes will be coming onstream in Australia, New Zealand and Canada as well as in Europe,” says Joe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, who moved to New York to take on the role last September. 4 Day Week Global is a not-for-profit community to provide a platform for like-minded people who are interested in supporting the four-day week as a part of the future of work. The idea was born out of a successful programme at New Zealand company Perpetual Guardian in 2018.
“The employee benefits of a four-day week are well established; research from the Perpetual Guardian programme and other case studies has shown how it improves wellbeing and work-life balance and helps to reduce stress and burnout. Midpoint employee surveys from the Irish trial back this up,” says O’Connor. (Researchers at University College Dublin will be publishing insights from the Irish trial when it is finished.)
“Employer bene ts are coming more into the spotlight now. e four-day week has been shown to create greater focus on productivity and working smarter rather than longer. Interest in the topic is likely to be turbo-charged in the coming year,” he adds.
“ e big thing coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic is that more and more companies are turning to the fourday week as a recruitment and retention tool. Remote and exible working gave them a degree of competitive edge two or three years ago, but this has now become standard so they need to nd something new.”
EMPLOYER EXPERIENCES
O’Connor used to work for Fórsa, which, in 2018, was the rst trade union in Ireland to set out the ambition of achieving a four-day working week. It is part of e Four Day Week Ireland campaign along with the National Women’s Council, Friends of the Earth Ireland, as well as a number of Irish businesses, academics and global advocates.
One of the businesses involved in the Irish campaign is recruitment, training and HR services rm ICE Group, which was the rst organisation in Ireland to adopt the four-day working week model, in July 2019. It employs 62 full-time sta in Galway.
“Our vision was to become a worldclass organisation that inspired others. To that end, we believed by adopting a four-day week operational model [100% productivity/100% pay], we would give back to our people the gi of a three-day weekend,” says Director Margaret Cox.
“Since then we have increased our productivity by 27% and reduced single-day absence to almost zero. Sta commute/travel times have fallen by 20% and we’ve had a very limited amount of unplanned attrition over the past three years. Our turnover and pro tability have increased year on year and our sta wellness scores are up by 33%.”
Managed IT and cyber security solutions provider Typetec saw taking part in the Irish trial as the next step in its evolution since successfully moving to remote- rst back in 2018, according to Director Ken Tormey. “What was evident through that transition, and ampli ed through Covid-19, is that time as a commodity is highly valued by our sta ,” he says.
Currently employing 37 people, Dublin-based Typetec is in recruitment mode at the moment. In June, for example, it announced the appointment of Pamela O’Toole to the newly created role of Head of Projects. “Sta retention is high and the four-day week has been a key ingredient in our success in hiring new talent onto our teams,” notes Tormey.
So lu t ion s SineadCrowther, FounderandCEO, Soothing
NOTHING BUT POSITIVES
Healthcare start-up Soothing Solutions began its recruitment journey being able to o er a four-day working week to new hires. Founded by Sinead Crowther and Denise Lauaki, Soothing Solutions has taken on 10 sta since March, further to starting on the Four Day Week Ireland trial in February. With €800,000 in seed funding, Soothing Solutions has set up its own manufacturing facility in Co Louth and launched its first product – a dissolvable honey jelly pop called Tonstix – in April. It’s available in 600 pharmacies nationwide and coming to every Boots store in Ireland in July. “Since we started the trial, sta morale and productivity is extremely high and we are exceeding our production outputs every day,” says Crowther. “Sta have reported that they have felt much happier in their personal lives and are energised returning to work on Mondays. We envisage that we will implement the four-day week as a company policy when the trial is over.”
