Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Section 481 tax relief is a vital part of the financial infrastructure of the Irish audiovisual industry. The objectives of the relief are to act as a stimulus to the Irish audiovisual industry in the State, creating quality employment opportunities, upskilling workers across the industry, supporting the production of new audiovisual programming across areas of Irish culture and language.

The report of the Budgetary Oversight Committee on S481 – Film Tax Credit published last month contains 14 recommendations. Recommendations 7 and 8 relate to Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright matters. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has responsibility for these issues and his Department is responsible for the transposition of the EU Copyright Directive.

Independently, Screen Ireland, the State Body with responsibility for the development of the Irish audiovisual industry has retained an independent facilitator to meet with key stakeholders to understand and discuss issues that have arisen as a result of and since the transposition into Irish law of the EU Copyright Directive. Individual stakeholder meetings have been held over recent months and the next phase of the process will be to engage in group discussions.