Film industry needs €2m boost

ADDITIONAL funding for the Irish Film Board is needed if the country’s movie industry is to attract new productions.

In its pre-budget submission, Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) said the board needs an extra €2 million a year to continue developing the film sector.

SPI director Malcolm Byrne said the Irish Film Board has been successful in marketing and distributing Irish films and animation as well as supporting productions in regional locations.

“Despite the large amount of revenue the board helps bring into the country every year their level of resources is less than a quarter of that of their counterparts in Denmark, who operate in a similar sized territory.

“If the board is to continue its good work it needs an increase of about €2m per year. Otherwise the Irish film industry will lose out,” Mr Byrne said.

In last year’s budget the Government retained the section 481 tax break for feature film investment, a move SPI says has already proven to have been good for the industry and the economy.

But SPI said Finance Minister Brian Cowen should also look at film investment tax incentive schemes in other countries for ways to improve Ireland as an investment location.

“We need to remain vigilant in keeping a watchful eye on what initiatives other countries are adopting so that we can be ready to adapt to the changing international market and not lose our competitive edge as a location for feature film production.

“We also need to remove the cap on investment in feature films. At the very least we need to be as competitive as the UK where the cap is set at €30m,” he said.

The group also repeated its calls for increased funding for TG4, giving the station an annual budget of €30m for 2005 from the level of €23m and to raise it further to €44m a year by 2007.

It said this was required for the station to increase its homegrown output. “The TG4 management want to be in a position to broadcast six hours of original Irish language programming everyday, almost doubling the amount they currently broadcast,” said Mr Byrne.

“They don’t want to have as many dubbed programmes or English language programmes on the station’s schedule, but the simple fact is they can’t afford to with the budget they currently have.”

SPI says Irish language television productions may shift to the North, which has extensive incentives for producers.

It said similar tax incentives are need in the upcoming budget.

“We believe a dedicated fund should be established to support producers of Irish language television programmes, as is the case in Northern Ireland with the establishment of the Irish Language Broadcast Fund.”