Light House Awarded Adjournment Period | The Irish Film & Television Network

All of the parties involved met in the High Court on Monday, March 28th for the official hearing of the wind up petition request where Ms Justice Mary Laffoy granted the cinema’s operators and founders, Neil Connolly and Maretta Dillon the adjournment period of just under three weeks. The cinema’s Board Members include the executive directors of the Light House; Neil Connolly and co-founder Maretta alongside filmmakers David Collins and David Kavanagh who serve as non-executive directors.

The rent for the Light House cinema was doubled in May 2010 from €100,000 to €200,000, this increase was outlined in the original lease but, in a previous conversation with IFTN, co-founder Maretta Dillon explained that the increase was outlined in the original lease but that “We agreed to pay a baseline rent based on a successful development which has not occurred,” The cinema’s directors learned of the John Flynn’s petition on Friday, March 18th. The cinema’s legal counsel, Alison Keirse BL has stated that the Light House is not in debt and is in possession of a tax clearance cert.

In the past, the cinema received funding from both the state and the Cultural Cinema Consortium, a body made up of members of the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board. This support of €1.75 million was granted during the construction of the cinema and Minister for Tourism, Art and Culture Jimmy Deenihan last week commented on the fund in the Dáil explaining that, as he saw it the state has two options – call for a complete refund or organise that the consortium take over the running of an art house cinema on the Smithfield site.

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