{"id":648070,"date":"2026-10-08T01:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/648070\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T01:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:16:18","slug":"tg4-and-screen-ireland-budget-funding-amounts-to-cut-in-real-terms-industry-warns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/648070\/","title":{"rendered":"TG4 and Screen Ireland budget funding amounts to \u2018cut\u2019 in real terms, industry warns \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Budget 2027<\/a> will create a \u201cvery challenging environment\u201d for the Irish film and television industry, screen producers have warned, after the Government cut RT\u00c9\u2019s funding<\/a> and decided against increasing TG4\u2019s<\/a> and Screen Ireland\u2019s<\/a> allocations.<\/p>\n

The Coalition also opted against reintroducing an enhanced tax incentive for regional film and TV production companies, which Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> said he would like to revisit after last year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, RT\u00c9 was allocated \u20ac240 million in public funding for next year, \u20ac20 million less than it was promised after reaching a multiyear funding agreement with the previous government in 2024. <\/p>\n

The minister also confirmed at a press conference on Wednesday that TG4\u2019s funding would remain static next year. The Irish language broadcaster had requested an additional \u20ac11 million in funding in Budget 2027, bringing its total allocation to \u20ac76.4 million. <\/p>\n

TG4 ard-sti\u00farth\u00f3ir Deirdre N\u00ed Choist\u00edn said the broadcaster would now have to \u201cassess the impact\u201d on its plans and strategic priorities for next year, \u201cat a time when interest in the Irish language is at a record high and demand for Irish-language content is stronger than ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Budget 2027: Does this giveaway budget have potential banana skins that might lie ahead for the Government?<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 and TG4 are two of the biggest revenue engines for the Irish screen industry, commissioning millions of euros in programming each year. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 spent \u20ac51.8 million through its Independent Production Unit (IPU) last year, while TG4 spent \u20ac36.4 million to commission 910 hours of programming from outside production companies.<\/p>\n

Susan Kirby, chief executive of industry group Screen Producers Ireland<\/a>, said that the sector was \u201csignificantly concerned\u201d about the decisions made in the budget. <\/p>\n

She said the lack of an uplift to TG4\u2019s and to Screen Ireland\u2019s funding amounted, in effect, to \u201creductions\u201d when expected inflation is taken into account. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0RT\u00c9 says \u20ac20m cut in funding will impact on strategy as Minister criticises pace of reforms<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be extremely concerned that the reduction in funding would be most acutely felt by the independent production sector,\u201d Kirby said of the decision to reduce RT\u00c9\u2019s funding relative to what was promised in the 2024 agreement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the creative sector that RT\u00c9 has identified as key to its reform plans under the New Direction Strategy, but the IPU budget is the easiest non-fixed element of the budget to reduce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The screen industry had also pushed for the reintroduction of an enhancement to the section 481 tax credit, for productions outside the Dublin and Wicklow corridor, which was phased out after three years in 2023. <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, O\u2019Donovan said the enhanced rate for regional productions was \u201csomething that we would keep under discussion with the Department of Finance\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, he did increase TG4\u2019s allocation and roll out an enhancement to the relief for the film industry in last year\u2019s budget, specifically aimed at the State\u2019s growing visual effects industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Budget 2027 will create a \u201cvery challenging environment\u201d for the Irish film and television industry, screen producers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5168,61,60,43,6232,6085,5237,141357,15337],"class_list":["post-648070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-budget","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-patrick-o-donovan","tag-rte","tag-screen-ireland-fis-eireann","tag-screen-producers-ireland","tag-tg4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}