Mr. Alan Carey:

There are a number of factors. Two thirds of the claims are for €500,000 or less. The most on one production could be up to €22.4 million. We can see how one big production can really skew the numbers. We spoke about the information published by Revenue. It is accurate but it probably needs a bit of context.

When a producer company is claiming the credit, it is a little bit complicated. If, say, they get a certificate in 2022, they have to go back and amend their corporation tax return for a previous year. I might use an example to clarify this. To a 31 December year-end, if a company wants to claim relief on a certificate in 2022, the previous tax return, for 2021, can be amended depending on the stage of the year. This is assuming that the specified return date for the corporation tax return has passed, which for December year end would be September 2022.

If it has not passed, however, and if the company wants to make the claim in June, it would go back to the 2020 return. The information the Revenue statistics branch produces and publishes shows the returns that were amended. If a film were certified in 2022, for example, some of that could be shown for a 2021 return being amended and some of it for 2020. Those numbers need to be contextualised. On the beneficiaries list we publish every quarter, it is shown by reference to the year in which the state aid was granted and the money received.