Written by on Oct 16, 2014. Posted in Incentive News

Ireland to consider raising €50m filming incentive spending cap in 2016

Ireland will consider increasing its current EUR 50 million (USD 63 million) cap on eligible expenditure that qualifies for the country’s filming incentive programme, from 2016. The current Section 481 filming incentive will convert to a tax credit from next year and the value will rise to 32%.

Increasing the spending cap could help Ireland attract more big-budget productions. This in turn would raise its international profile and help it compete with Northern Ireland and the mainland UK. Last year, Ireland also expanded the Section 481 programme to cover star salaries as a further Hollywood incentive.

“As the new scheme beds down next year, I will be monitoring how it works and how it can be improved,” said Michael Noonan, the Irish Minister for Finance: “One of the issues that I will consider in the context of Budget 2016 is a possible increase to the EUR 50 million cap on eligible expenditure, subject of course to resource constraints.”

Ireland is a popular international filming location, partly because of the Section 481 incentive programme. History Channel’s show Vikings (above) is based at Ashford Studios near Dublin and was recently confirmed for a third series, while Penny Dreadful, created by Skyfall writer John Logan, recreates Victorian London at the nearby Ardmore Studios.

The west of the country recently hosted scenes for Star Wars: Episode VII when filmmaker JJ Abrams and his creative team chose to film on the island of Skellig Michael off County Kerry. Abrams is a prolific film and TV producer as well as a director and his production company Bad Robot has reportedly held talks with the Irish government to discuss bringing future projects to Ireland as well.

(Image: History Channel)