Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last year the Minister for Finance said he would keep the cap on eligible expenditure on the film tax credit under review, as well as considering other possible amendments to improve the operation of the scheme. In recognition of the importance of Ireland’s film industry to the cultural economy he announced an increase in the cap on eligible expenditure to €70 million in the budget. This arose from a proposal within the Government from the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The Minister’s aim in doing this, based on his advice from that Department, is to try to attract higher budget films to Ireland. He does very much intend to monitor the measure closely to ensure it has the intended effect. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht had indicated that the current cap made the scheme less attractive to big budget films and that a sizeable increase was needed to encourage film studios to invest in increased studio capacity. I recently visited several film studios in my constituency and this issue came up, that they needed to attract more big budget films. We are trying this on the advice of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, but the Minister for Finance will monitor it to make sure it has the intended effect of attracting more film productions and an expansion of film studios.