Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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54. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the progress she has made in convening the film industry stakeholder forum as recommended in the recent report by the budget oversight and scrutiny committee on section 481 film tax credit and the Irish film industry. [45790/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 28, 30 and 54 together.

The Report of the Budgetary Oversight Committee contained 14 Recommendations relating to the Section 481 Film Tax Relief. In addition to those recommendations that fall under my remit, responsibility for the analysis and consideration of the majority of recommendations falls on the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment as well as on the Committee itself. To date Recommendation number 13 has been implemented with the announcement of an increase of the Section 481 cap up from €70m to €125m in Budget 2024.

Officials from my Department have engaged with officials from both the Department of Finance and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in relation to many of the recommendations.

Consideration is being given to Recommendation 14 as part of overall considerations of the Committee’s Report and further engagement between my Department and the Department of Finance is ongoing on a suitable format for a forum. My Department is expected to lead with the involvement of Minister McGrath's Department and Minister Coveney's Department. Further details will be announced in due course.

Earlier this year, Screen Ireland, the State Body with responsibility for the development of the Irish audiovisual industry, retained an independent facilitator to meet with stakeholders to understand and discuss issues that have arisen since the transposition into Irish law of the EU Copyright Directive.

During the first phase of the process, individual stakeholder meetings were held and subsequently moderated group discussions took place with screen writers, directors, composers, actors, animation and live-action producers, with a view to finding common understandings and potential clarifications that might be required around the legislation. As a collective, the industry representative group has proposed next steps that Screen Ireland is currently reviewing with a view to supporting progress. It is important to allow that process the opportunity to address some of these concerns in the first instance. As Minister, I would encourage all representative groups to continue to engage in this process and in negotiating fair agreements to ensure the continued success and growth of the industry.