Ireland’s screen sector has achieved record success in recent years, but its next phase of growth will be limited unless the Government acts now to build production capacity beyond the Dublin Metropolitan Area and Ashford, Wicklow (the DMAA.) That is the central message of the Western AV Forum’s (WAVF) Pre-Budget Submission 2027, prepared by Ardán on behalf of WAVF. Discover all about it below...
Western AV Forum calls for 8% Regional Uplift, Regional Screen Producers’ Fund, & €1.5m Games Portfolio Fund
Download the WAVF Pre-Budget 2027 Submission on the Ardán website.
WAVF is calling on the Irish Government to include three targeted measures in Budget 2027:
1. a permanent 8% Regional Uplift (Tax Incentive) under Section 481 for productions filming outside the DMAA;
2. a €3 million annual Regional Screen Producers’ Fund within Screen Ireland; and
3. a ringfenced €1.5 million Screen Ireland Games Portfolio Fund.
Together, these measures would expand national production capacity, make regional production commercially viable, strengthen region-rooted companies, retain more Irish-owned IP, and support digital games as a modern storytelling, innovation and export opportunity.
In 2025, Ireland recorded €544 million in audiovisual (film & TV) production spend, but the benefits remain heavily concentrated in the main east-coast production hub. WAVF says this is now a national capacity issue, not just a regional concern.
“I set up Fíbín Media in Conamara in 2008. We’ve just produced our second season of CRÁ, a drama series for TG4 and BBC, which has sold to 68 countries worldwide. That’s proof that stories made from this part of the country, in our own language, can travel as far as anything made anywhere else. CRÁ didn't happen because we got lucky once. It happened because we'd spent over fifteen years building a company, a crew, a relationship with broadcasters, and a body of work behind it. That kind of continuity is hard won and easily lost between productions.” - Darach Ó Tuairisg, Léiritheoir (Producer), CRÁ.
A national growth opportunity for the screen production sector
WAVF argues that Ireland has the potential to achieve €1 billion in annual screen production spend within a decade, but only if production capacity is widened beyond the current hub and stronger regional companies are supported to grow. The submission highlights that, in 2025, just 14% of Section 481 projects filmed outside Leinster, while producers working in the regions continue to face an estimated 8–12% structural cost premium due to crew, infrastructure, travel and accommodation pressures. The previous Regional Uplift has shown that targeted policy works when it is meaningful and stable: at 5% in 2021, it supported 24 projects, €124 million in spend and 1,941 crew. Once the uplift tapered, regional activity contracted sharply.
“The legacy of that regional uplift is still being felt as skilled crew leading the way for Irish productions, who all still live in Limerick. Now that our show has come back for the third time (from the pilot, to Season 1, and now Season 2), We are seeing a new wave of people coming through who are getting mortgages of their own, thanks to the employment from our returning film work in the region.” - Stephen Hall, Producer, The Wayfinders
Call to action for the Irish Government
WAVF is calling on the Government to include the three proposed measures in Budget 2027 as a targeted screen-sector growth package, which was developed in consultation with WAVF members and with our colleagues in Screen Producers Ireland, Animation Ireland, and Film in Limerick.
The Western AV Forum says the package would ease pressure on the main production hub, strengthen Ireland’s competitiveness, deepen national crew and supplier capacity, and ensure that the cultural and economic benefits of screen production are felt more widely across Ireland.
Alan Duggan, CEO of Ardán and Chair of the Western AV Forum, said: "WAVF is proposing three measures that strengthen the whole Irish screen sector and increase the return Ireland gets from public investment in film, television, animation and games. The sector could achieve up to €1billion in spend but to achieve this, we need a broader production base, stronger companies across the country, and more routes for Irish-owned IP to reach international audiences. Empowering the sector across the regions is how we secure a more resilient future for Irish storytellers.”
Download the WAVF Pre-Budget 2027 Submission on the Ardán website.
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