'Vital to attract talent who will consider staying in Kilkenny and creating a life and home here'

The Animation Ireland Pre-Budget 2025 Submission to Government asks for investment to uplift the animation sector here, so it can thrive and grow.

Key to this is that Government take steps to re-imagine and relaunch the Regional Film Development Uplift at 8% ring fenced for a minimum of 10 years. The reintroduction of a regional tax incentive may take time to implement, so in the meantime Animation Ireland and their members would like to see the establishment of an interim Regional Audiovisual Development Fund of €10 million and the funding of a regional department within Screen Ireland.

Ireland has been the envy of animation, film and creative communities across the world, our Government investment in the form of Tax Credits has contributed immensely to Ireland’s globally celebrated, awarded and commercially successful animation and live action sector.  But without targeted tax incentives, especially for the regions, our domestic market would simply not have the resources to bring our stories to the world.

Lighthouse Studios specifically based itself in Kilkenny to help create an animation hub with Cartoon Saloon. Situated in St Kieran’s College, it not only gives this iconic old building a totally modern purpose, it brings talent from all over Ireland, and indeed the world, to create and execute some of the world’s most well-known series, for providers like Netflix, Apple, Amazon and others, winning multiple awards including a BAFTA. It also now is developing multiple projects of its own IP.

Animation is a slow process and it involves large numbers of artists. It is vital to attract talent to the studios who will consider staying in Kilkenny and creating a life and home here, to train and mentor young upcoming talent, and indeed many of our crew have done that. Creating a hub allows the studios to offer more consistent work to crew and ensure the sustainability of talent and employment in the region.

As all creative industries are subject to the foibles of the content market, and considering how much has changed with the introduction of the streamers and now AI, it is imperative that we be able to survive the down periods as well as the up times.

We must be competitive with our foreign friends in the industry and having extra incentives to help innovate new pipelines will promote sustainable and new ways of working to keep us known as a centre for excellence in animation and enable us to thrive in Kilkenny long into the future.
READ NEXT: BUDGET 2025 MUST GET BALANCE RIGHT - PWC KILKENNY