Ms D?sir?e Finnegan:

I thank the committee for inviting us here today. Screen Ireland is the national agency for the Irish film, TV drama, animation, documentary, shorts and visual effects industry. The agency works closely with industry stakeholders and creative teams to fund and assist Irish projects from early stage development through to production, distribution, marketing and exhibition. Screen Ireland is responsible for promoting the expression of national Irish culture on screen and developing skills across the sector.

In recent years, there has been extensive growth in both local and international production. From 2019 to 2021, local Irish feature film activity increased by 52% and local TV drama production spend increased by 40%. Irish animation also demonstrated a further increase in 2021, following a decade of rapid growth that resulted in record-breaking production levels. Last year, Screen Ireland-funded projects earned over 35 major international award nominations, including Academy Award, Emmy and BAFTA nominations.

Screen Ireland has a dual remit and is also responsible for attracting foreign direct investment to Ireland in the form of international production in line with the Government’s audiovisual action plan ambition to make Ireland a global centre of excellence for production.

Ireland is a recognised leader globally in animation with approximately 2,500 people currently employed across 42 studios. Ireland has also become a world-class visual effects hub for large-scale projects. Screen Ireland welcomed the opportunity to showcase this sector's work on a trade mission to Los Angeles with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin.

National Irish-language cinema has also been redefined in recent years. In the middle of an intensely difficult time for cinemas and the cinema-going experience, an Irish-language film broke domestic box office records, reaching a diverse audience across many different generations. It created a cultural sensation at home and abroad and is now the Irish entry for the Academy Awards. As a result of the cine4 scheme and section 481, we now have more Irish-language feature films being produced than ever before, ensuring that Irish filmmakers’ voices can be heard as Gaeilge as well as in English. The tax incentive for film and television production has been part of public policy in Ireland for more than three decades and we have provided a written submission with further detail on the importance of the credit to the sector. It exists to stimulate and support the local indigenous industry and it also attracts high-end international production to Ireland.

Section 481 supports live-action film and TV production, animation production, creative documentary, post-production and visual effects, supporting both creative endeavour and employment across all these sectors. The credit is administered by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. In March 2019, Screen Ireland was asked by the Department to take on a new role to develop and then oversee a new process for tracking training and skills development opportunities on projects, which is a requirement of the tax credit. This was a new departure for the agency, providing an opportunity for Screen Ireland to introduce a more structured approach to work-based learning and skills tracking, making Ireland the first country in the world to link such a formal skills tracking process to a tax credit. I will now hand over to my colleague, Mr. Gareth Lee, who is head of skills and professional development, to take the committee through some of this work.