Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion
2:00 pm
Mr. Seamus Coffey:
In the context of the film sector, I am not particularly concerned because that seems to be how that sector operates. There are different people involved in the making of every film, whether in front of or behind the camera and films tend to be standalone projects. It is not like a company making the same product over and over again with the same staff. I do not have concerns about SPVs in the film industry. In relation to SPVs in general, Ireland has tried to develop niches in some areas of financial services like bond issuance and other elements that seem to have an oversized presence in Ireland. We are trying to be a global leader in this so they do tend to be oversized here. There are various mechanisms that different types of SPVs use, particularly in the property investment area, upon which there has been legitimate focus in recent years and changes have been made. I do not see them being an issue in the film sector, unless one goes back to the studio-based approach whereby employees have an employment contract with a studio and go from film to film. That industry seems to have changed.