Review of impact of UK budget on Irish audiovisual industry

MINISTER FOR Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan has ordered a review of the possible impact on the Irish audiovisual industry of recent changes in the UK budget.

The introduction of tax breaks to UK television productions up to a value of 25 per cent is likely to undercut the advantages of British production companies filming here, where there is an effective tax break of 28 per cent.

The British chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, announced in his recent budget that the tax breaks enjoyed by British films should be extended to high-end television drama.

Some €20 million worth of drama for British television has or is being shot in Ireland so far this year, with three BBC dramas, Ripper Street (€11 million), Vexed 2 (€3.5 million) and Loving Miss Hatto (€2 million) contributing to the bulk of the spend.

The Screen Producers of Ireland estimates that €54.4 million has been spent in Ireland on major British drama productions in the last three years.

The review will be carried out by the Irish Film Board, and will look at all aspects of the competitiveness of the industry in Ireland.

Separately, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has ordered a review of section 481 tax reliefs, which underpin the Irish film and television industry.

Both ministers announced their details in response to a parliamentary question by Seán Kyne (FG).

One of the biggest investors in the Irish television drama industry is Tiger Aspect Productions, which is making Ripper Street and has made Omagh, two series of Murphy’s Law and The League of Gentlemen film in Ireland. Its head of production, Frith Tiplady, said UK production companies would always want to do television dramas “as close as possible to home”, but the decision to make Ripper Street in Dublin was half down to location and half to the tax breaks.

She said the proposed tax changes were “brilliant news” for the UK television industry. “It has always been our goal to shoot in the UK because of familiarity, talent and ease.”

Ibec’s audiovisual federation director, Torlach Denihan, said the film industry in Ireland had a year before the proposed changes were introduced. There was a 30 per cent differential between labour costs in Ireland and the UK and though a deal had been done between Siptu and the industry in 2010, costs were “significantly out of line” for craft workers.

He believed “tax would not be top of the list” in terms of dealing with the competitiveness issues.

“What the British have done should make us see through the outstanding issues on the labour side.”