Irish movie-makers have urged the Cabinet to reverse plans to end tax breaks for film and television next year, warning the industry risks losing more than 3,000 jobs and becoming an international backwater. Edward Power reports.
Screen Producers Ireland (SPI), formerly Film Makers Ireland, said that repealing the section 481 tax allowance scheme at the end of 2004 would prompt an 80 per cent fall-off in Irish-based productions as film studios availed of generous concessions elsewhere, most notably Britain.
SPI yesterday released a report that claims increased financial support from Government could triple numbers employed in the sector to 11,000 and see it contributing €500 million annually to the Exchequer by 2010.
Extending section 481 by 10 years, subject to a five-year review, while raising the cap on investment to €21 million from €10 million is a key recommendation of the SPI study by independent consultant Ms Aileen O'Malley. Section 481 affords very substantial tax reliefs to companies and individual investors who back films made in Ireland.
The film and television drama industry employs 4,300 and contributes €107 million to gross domestic product each year, the report states.
There are also significant knock-on benefits for tourism, where 3,000 owe their livelihoods to the high profile accorded to the Republic through movie production here, it says.
Because of the uncertain outlook, Hollywood studios were increasingly discounting the State as a location, said SPI member Mr Andrew Lowe, a contributor to the study.
Big-budget productions were planned years in advance and interest in Ireland as a location was already cooling rapidly, he said.
SPI has submitted the report to the Cabinet and is to seek meetings with several ministers, including the Tánaiste. But it may have a lengthy wait on its hands - the Government is not expected to revisit the issue ahead of September's publication of its own report on the industry.
Although the flight of Hollywood productions would be the most high-profile consequence of section 481's repeal, the indigenous movie sector would also suffer, Mr Lowe said. "Irish film-makers will look to the Isle of Man and Britain, where tax exemptions are already far more favourable," he said.
Introduced in 1993, section 481 has prompted unprecedented growth in Irish film-making, SPI says.
