No CSO statistics are available for employment numbers for the Irish film industry, because the categories in the labour force survey are too broad to allow the identification of employment in this sector.
The central database on employment in the file industry is held by the audiovisual production federation of IBEC, which produces an annual report on the economic impact of film and television production. It should be noted that, in the nature of the industry, many placements are on a short-term basis. The annual reports of IBEC for 1993, 1994 and 1995 indicate the following number of placements in the industry: 1993: 3,772; 1994: 10,845 and 1995: 16,031. The 1993 figure excludes details of those working on independent television production, as this information was not available at the time.
In person-year terms, the figures for direct Irish employment are as follows: 1993, 480; 1994, 1,291; and 1995, 1,266. Again, the 1993 figure excludes independent television production.
I should also add that the above statistics relate to direct employment only and do not include employment generated through expenditure on Irish goods and services. Nor do they include non-Irish residents employed on film production in this country. Data for 1996 will not become available until the latter half of this year.
The only other data available to me is in respect of 1991 and emanates from the Coopers and Lybrand Report on the Indigenous Audiovisual Production Industry, according to which, some 694 direct full-time equivalent jobs were created in both the feature film and the independent television production sector that year. The report does not state the number of actual placements.