Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan and Roddy Doyle rank high amongst the most successful and acclaimed Irish artists of the modern era.
So when they join together, with other film directors, producers and writers to demand the retention of Section 481 tax relief for film production, their voices deserve serious consideration. They believe that if Section 481 expires, as planned, at the end of 2004, production levels will decline by up to 80 per cent. Jobs will be lost, skilled workers will be forced to emigrate and the Irish film industry will cease to exist.
Such apocalyptic predictions are not uncommon when special interest groups believe themselves threatened by changes in legislation. In this instance, however, the predictions may be correct. The tax incentive for film investment has been in place now for some 15 years. Like all such measures, it was intended to run for a fixed period to provide a boost for what was then a small and undeveloped sector. That sector is now considerably larger, employing over 4,000 people, according to the industry group Screen Producers Ireland.
Some may question why, therefore, it still needs any special provision from the Irish taxpayer. The most pressing arguments relate to the special position of film production, which is both an important form of national cultural expression and a high technology industry, and to the highly mobile and project-based nature of the film-making process itself. Furthermore, the financial realities of the international film industry mean that tax breaks or cheaper labour costs are often the key element in deciding where a film will be made or, in some cases, whether it will be made at all.
As Mr Jack Valenti, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, pointed out in Dublin recently, Ireland will be the only English-speaking country in the developed world which does not provide a tax incentive for film-making if Section 481 ends. As the representative of the world's biggest audiovisual industry, Mr Valenti's words carry some weight.
The Minister for Arts, Mr O'Donoghue, has already made clear his conviction that tax incentives should be retained, while indicating that some loopholes and potential abuses of the current system need to be addressed. If Mr O'Donoghue sees weaknesses or the potential for abuses in the current system, these should certainly be addressed. Equally, if there are ways in which it can be refined or improved, these should be considered. However, to end Section 481 would place this country at a competitive disadvantage in a key cultural industry which it would surely come to regret.