15/11/2006

According to the 2006 IBEC Audiovisual Federation Report published last week, overall spending on the film and television sector in Ireland increased by €79m, from €96.6m in 2005 to an estimated €175.7m in 2006.

This return to higher levels of investment in 2006 is good news for the industry, especially for the feature film sector, which faced a 50% decrease in production last year compared to 2004. To respond to challenges from other international film production hubs and lower levels of productions in 2005, the Irish government increased the Irish Film Board’s 2006 budget by 21% to €19.4m, and introduced improvements to the film tax incentive Section 481.

However, for key industry members and representatives of the Audiovisual Federation (AF) – such as Kevin Moriarty and Andrew Lowe, managing directors of Ardmore Studios and Element Films, respectively – these measures are not sufficient. In the AF report, Lowe called on the government to commit to an extension of Section 481 to December 31, 2012, and to improve the tax incentives in its forthcoming budget (early 2007) with the following measures:

-Increase the write-off available to individual investors from the current level of 80% of their investment to 100% for indigenous productions.
-Amend the definition of eligible spending to include all filmmaking activity in Ireland.
-Increase the cap on Section 481 Funds that can be raised per project, from the current level of €35m to €50m.
-Raise the cap on individual investments from €31,750 to €50,000.

Commenting on the report, Irish Minister of Culture John O'Donoghue said: "There is no denying the consistent success of the Section 481 scheme, which has resulted in over 30 projects being certified to date in 2006, with total budgets exceeding €180 million." He added that a future revision of the Section 481 scheme will be based on the experience of its success over time and confirmed his commitment to examining new and innovative ways of developing the Irish film sector.