Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 47:

In page 64, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: "(I) by the insertion of ", including the development of the film industry in all the regions of Ireland," between "Irish film industry" and "and/or the promotion",".

This amendment relates to the promotion of the film industry in all regions. As the Minister is well aware, I am from Galway. One of the issues is, of course, film development across Galway. Much of the film industry is concentrated in Dublin and the Leinster area. We have had fantastic films over recent years, including the likes of "An Cailín Ciúin", "Kneecap" and "The Banshees of Inisherin". The aim is that we continue to build on that because we have expertise in the area.

We know that in 2024, 70% of recipient projects were based in Leinster, with over 54% in the Dublin-Wicklow region alone. That is obviously our main film production hub. The total estimated value was over €400 million. By contrast with these 62 Leinster projects, just 13 were supported in Munster, with eligible expenditure of €25.5 million, and 11 were supported in Connacht, to the tune of €29 million. Even those productions that were in those regions were of a small scale. It is, of course, much more difficult for film to be made further away from the major production hub, which is why we need to incentivise production in other regions to ensure balanced development.

I cannot remember if the Minister was before the Committee on Budgetary Oversight on this topic at the time, but I remember during the last Dáil the Committee on Budgetary Oversight took an awful lot of time to look at this particular issue. The aim of this particular amendment is to empower the State to include measures within the section 481 industry development test to promote the development of audiovisual production outside the main production hub.

This is an issue that arises regularly for me at a local level. Of course, we have some fantastic productions, such as "Ros na Rún", which happen every week in the likes of Galway and other areas. There are many courses and so on for students, at third level in particular, in film and TV. It would be good if we could get that promoted more. I would be interested to hear the Minister's response in terms of what the Government will do to address the gap that has arisen in support for regional film.

Since they are being taken together, will I go through each of the amendments? Okay. Amendment No. 48 is quite interesting because it relates to the music aspect of things.

The Screen Composers Guild Ireland collected data that show the number of productions in receipt of the section 481 tax credit that employ an Irish-based composer or use an Irish-based music contribution continues to remain static at just 30%. None of those included in that are high-budget projects. This falls far short of what should be seen as an acceptable level of benefit for something that is a key creative part of our film industry. The Irish Music Rights Organisation, IMRO, in its pre-budget submission, highlighted this, stating that despite music being a vital component in any film's success, most section 481 schemes do not specifically mention music creation. This is done differently in Britain and a variety of other countries. We need to look at this. That figure of 30% is quite low. We can be very proud of our artistic community but there are issues in relation to that. I ask the Minister to address amendments Nos. 47 and 48.