Screen Producers Ireland 'disappointed' as budget offers no incentive to regional production 

Government has increased supports to VFX sector in Budget 2025

Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) has expressed concern that Budget 2025 made no provision to extend regional uplift supports to the film sector outside of Dublin and Wicklow.

Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) has expressed concern that Budget 2025 made no provision to extend regional uplift supports to the film sector outside of Dublin and Wicklow.

Finance minister Paschal Donohoe announced a tax credit to support the visual effects sector in Ireland in his Budget 2026 speech which will provide a 40% rate of relief for productions with a minimum of €1m of eligible expenditure on visual effects. The rate will apply up to a maximum of €10m per production.

Another entertainment industry, digital games, will see the digital games tax credit extended for six years until the end of 2031.

However SPI had lobbied for an 8% 'uplift' to the existing Section 481 32% tax breaks in film and TV production and development for all productions filming outside the main production hub of Ireland, which is centred in Dublin and Wicklow. 

It also advocated extending the Section 481 'Scéal' uplift to Irish creative documentary to ensure competitive parity with the UK's independent film tax credit (IFTC).

"It is disappointing that the S481 regional uplift proposal is not part of Budget 2026. There is strong evidence that the key opportunity to rebalance production across the country is with the support of a regional incentive," said SPI chief executive Susan Kirby. SPI said communications, culture, and sport minister Patrick O'Donovan had expressed support for the proposal at various industry events.

"An additional regional incentive would allow the sector to grow organically through production hubs across Ireland, ensuring we have balanced regional development in the screen production sector. It would also enable crew, actors and production infrastructure to build sustainably across the country and support the economic and cultural life of areas outside Dublin/Wicklow."

However, SPI has welcomed the Government’s decision to increase funding in Screen Ireland to €2.1m and the decision to increase the TG4 budget to €5.4m.