David Puttnam supports Screen Producers Ireland Campaign for 8% regional uplift in Budget 2027

David Puttnam supports Screen Producers Ireland Campaign for 8% regional uplift in Budget 2027: Please see below a full text of his letter to the Irish Times.

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Sir,

On Tuesday, the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris, has the opportunity to spread Ireland’s screen industry across the whole country at very little cost. I urge him to add an 8% regional uplift to Section 481 in Budget 2027. Section 481 is the film tax credit that returns 32% of qualifying production spend in Ireland. It has served this country remarkably well. The uplift, proposed by Screen Producers Ireland and many others, would apply to productions filming outside Dublin and Wicklow. I strongly support the proposal.

Skibbereen has been my home for more than thirty years. In 1993 we made War of the Buttons in West Cork, with scores of local young people on the crew and cast. At least four went on to very successful careers in film. Every one of them had to move to Dublin or Belfast to do it.

In 2023 West Cork Film Studios opened in Skibbereen. Everyone Digs Bill Evans, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale earlier this year, was filmed there with the help of local crew. Bill Pullman, who stars in the film, has spoken fondly of how he walked from the West Cork Hotel through the old railway ‘cutting’ to work at the Studio every morning. He wants to come back. The studio has brought a sense of vibrancy to the town, and people are finding jobs there who never would have considered our sector before. Locals who work in film production finally have a chance to stay. But West Cork is still the exception. In 2025, Section 481 productions spent €502 million in Ireland. Only €70 million of it, or 14%, was spent outside Leinster.

Films and series take three years or more to make. The uplift should run for as long as Section 481 itself. Nobody builds a regional company on a tax credit that might end before the work is finished.

A bill now before the US Congress for a federal film tax credit could keep some American productions at home. Irish companies that develop, produce and own their work will stay here whatever Congress decides.

Since 2023, my team at Atticus Education has run a screen careers programme for Transition Year students in Munster. I want to tell each of them they can build a career in this industry without leaving their region. Today I cannot honestly say that.

Get this right and the next generation will have the choice to stay. Get it wrong and growth stays in Dublin and Wicklow, where studio space and crews are already in short supply. I sincerely hope the Tánaiste takes this chance on Tuesday.

Yours Sincerely,

DAVID PUTTNAM,

Skibbereen,

Co Cork.