Mr. Eoin Holohan:

The regional uplift has decreased to 2% going into 2023. My experience is as a location manager. I worked in the regions during the time the regional uplift was there and I worked there when we all went back to work just after Covid, and I think it worked. I think it brought production to the regions. I think it was maybe Ms Kirby who said this. I would like to see it come back. Everyone needs to sit down and discuss what to do. It needs to be a seven-year plan, almost. What we want is an industry in the regions. For that to happen we would want crew in the regions because what is holding us back from shooting in the regions at the moment is the lack of available crew. We have to bring the crew over, and there is a big cost involved in that. It is a case of the chicken and the egg. If we bring in a regional uplift or some kind of incentive to shoot in the regions, the crew will develop in the regions. It will start with trainees. To use my department as an example, those trainee location staff will become, after a couple of years, location assistants and, a couple of years after that, maybe six years down the line, assistant location managers. There you go. Then there should be beneath them location assistants and location trainees as well. That is across all the departments that work on a film. When you see the credits of a film, that is us. That is all those departments.

The uplift worked. I wish it would come back. That is just me being selfish as a location manager. I would prefer to work there more often, but I think that the people in the regions who want a career in this industry deserve it.