09/02/2006

As part of the Irish government’s 2006 Finance Bill, Minister for Finance Brian Cowan has announced the introduction of new measures to strengthen the tax incentives for film and television production, known as Section 481, in order to increase Ireland’s competitive position as a location for international productions.

Those new measures include a raise not only of the percentage of expenditure eligible for tax relief, from the existing 55% or 66% of the budget to 80%, but also of the ceiling on qualifying expenditure for any one film from €15m to €35m.

"These significant improvements to Section 481 further demonstrate the Irish government’s ongoing commitment to the growth of the Irish film industry and in particular Cultural Minister John O’Donoghue’s continued support," said James Morris, Chairman of the Irish Film Board. "This good news follows the recent increase to the capital budget for the IFB which has been increased by 21% for 2006," he added.

Screen Producers Ireland CEO David McLoughlin also warmly welcomed the government’s continued support to the local film industry, saying that “measures like this one should ensure that Ireland increase its share of international productions”.

These improvements to Section 481 are the direct response from the Irish government to a report published early January by the Irish Audiovisual Federation (IBEC), which stated that feature film expenditure into the Irish economy had dropped by as much as 82.5% between 2003 and 2005 due to the continuously weak US dollar, increased competition from other European countries for film locations, and sudden changes to UK film tax incentives.