The recovery position

Hard to say exactly where things stand for film in this country with the publication of the Government's plan. More clarity will come with the budget.

Some points to note:

Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport
Revised Capital Expenditure Ceiling 2011 - 2014
2011 2012 2013 2014 Total
€96m €100m €85m €80m €361m
Will this impact on the annual capital available to the Film Board?

Artists' Tax Exemption
Earnings ceiling reduced to €40,000

VAT going up, and then up again. (2013-14) Minimum wage going down.

Some pointers on tax reliefs
Many are being abolished and the benefit from others being retained to be reduced to the standard (lower) tax rate. We'll have to wait to see if this or any other change is being made to Section 481.

UPDATE
The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin TD, has issued a statment on the implications of the plan for her Department.
The savings in current spending for 2011 total €17million, of which €4million will be in administrative non-pay overheads. Total current spending across the three sectors will be in the order of €296million in 2011. Over the lifetime of the plan the Tourism, Culture and Sport areas will contribute savings of €76million in current expenditure.
She also says, There has been an unprecedented investment in national and regional arts and culture infrastructure, performance venues and film and TV production capacities... In the context of the four year plan, we will continue to prioritise capital investment in the film and audiovisual content production sector...

So, if it's a cut of €17m in current expenditure in year one, and a total cut of €76million over the four years, then there will be an average of €19.66m cut in 2012, 2013 and 2014. In soundbite form that's a 24% drop over four years on current spending this year.

It's what we might call the recovery position.