The report commissioned by Screen Producers Ireland, Realising the Potential of the Irish Film and Television Industry - A Unique National Asset, is a welcome contribution to an overdue debate on the current condition of the audiovisual production sector.
It is now 10 years since the then minister for arts, Mr Michael D. Higgins, introduced a series of measures designed to stimulate Irish film production. These included the re-establishment of the Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann and the implementation of a more attractive tax incentive for investment in film. The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has announced that this incentive, known as Section 481, will not be renewed when it expires at the end of 2004. This is clearly a cause of great concern to film producers, whose report suggests that ending the incentives will lead to an 80 per cent fall in output, with concomitant job losses and company closures.
The SPI report focuses on the economic benefits to this country of a vibrant audiovisual sector. Why, then, do Irish film producers need specialised financial incentives to ensure their survival? The answer is twofold: firstly, the unique nature of the film production process means that the industry does not benefit in the same way as others from our low rates of corporation tax or from extensive support from Enterprise Ireland. Secondly, and crucially, nearly all other developed countries, including Australia, Canada and our EU partners, offer a range of incentives which are at least as favourable as those available here.
These benefits are not purely economic, nor are they always immediately tangible. For a small, open society, operating within the context of an increasingly globalised mass media, film and television are vital conduits for a country to communicate, both with itself and with the broader world. In the absence of such conduits, the already overweening domination of our cinema and television screens by the Hollywood entertainment industry will become total.
Only in the last decade has there been a concerted attempt to develop an Irish film industry. The results so far have been mixed. Despite some, mostly low-key successes, many films have failed to connect with audiences. As yet, only a small number of production companies and film-makers have achieved the critical mass necessary to be taken seriously in the international marketplace. In many respects, Irish film-making is still a cottage industry, and it may well be that adjustments are necessary to the current support structures to move it forward. But to remove the tax incentive at this stage would undo at a stroke many years of hard work, much of it undertaken by State agencies.