The Irish Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan (TD) has underlined the current Irish Government’s support for Irish filmmaking and the Irish film, television and animation Industry through his speech on the budget for the year 2015.
Speaking yesterday, he said “The new Irish film tax credit scheme is due to commence in 2015 and I am very pleased that it has been broadly welcomed by the film industry. The film industry is very important to modern Irish culture and to the economy, not just in terms of jobs but also indirectly through tourism promotion.
“As the new scheme beds down next year, I will be monitoring how it works and how it can be improved. One of the issues that I will consider in the context of Budget 2016 is a possible increase to the €50 million cap on eligible expenditure, subject of course to resource constraints.”
Last year the Irish government announced an improvement to the Irish financial incentive for the film, television and animation industry through Section 481, which is intended to create new jobs within the sector. The new measures will mean that Section 481 will apply to non-EU as well as EU talent working in Ireland.
The enhancement of the Irish tax incentive for the film and television industry demonstrates the continued commitment of the Irish government to the future of the Irish film, television and animation sectors as well as to Ireland’s creative industries. Earlier in 2013, the Irish government extended the Section 481 scheme to 2020 and increased its value to 32% as of 2016. This improvement and the change announced in the 2014 budget has now been brought forward to 2015.
The Audiovisual Federation, the Ibec group that represents the feature film, television and animation sectors in Ireland, today welcomed the positive comments regarding the sector by the Minister for Finance in the Budget speech.
Audiovisual Federation Director Torlach Denihan said: "The Audiovisual Federation welcomes the Minister for Finance's statement as to the importance of the film industry and notes that the sector has growth from 700 jobs 20 years ago to over 6000 jobs today with significant further potential. The introduction of the new film tax credit scheme in 2015 and the associated commitment to extend tax relief to 2020 will help to make Ireland an even more attractive location for foreign film and TV production."
Last week, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, also spoke of the ‘positive growth and international acclaim’ that the Irish film industry has seen in recent years. See more here.