Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The entire area of development of the audio-visual industry, including the gaming sector and other digital content, was examined during the preparation of the Creative Capital report, Building Ireland's Audiovisual Creative Economy. The report was published in July 2011 and an implementation committee to pursue the execution of its recommendations has been established. One of the recommendations made in the report concerns the extension of section 481 to the end of 2020. It is currently approved until the end of 2015 and the Minister, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, recently secured EU state aid approval in this regard. A public consultation process to assist the Department of Finance in examining the operation of the section 481 scheme beyond 2015 was announced on 24 May. As part of this process, interested parties were invited to make submissions on the economic impact assessment of the operation, status and future development of the scheme. My Department was heavily involved in this consultation process and the Minister is working closely with the Minister for Finance on bringing it to a conclusion.

See this speech in context