EDITOR - On Tuesday October 6, the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris, had the opportunity to spread Ireland’s screen industry across the whole country at very little cost, by adding 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 was proposed by Screen Producers Ireland and many others, and would have applied to productions filming outside Dublin and Wicklow.

Skibbereen has been my home for more than 30 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 €502m in Ireland. Only €70m 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. 

Yours Sincerely,
David Puttnam,
Skibbereen.

EDITOR - What an extremely successful three day at the Allihies Autumn School event at The Allihies Copper Mine Museum was, exploring migration, identity and the politics of the place through talks, exhibitions, film and local voices. 

It was extremely educational and very well presented.

Tadgh O'Sullivan and Klaudia Drozdzik welcomed everyone.

It was their tenacious, impeccable and intricate work efforts that made the whole three-day experience possible.

Senator Noel O'Donovan officially opened the event and heaped praise on the organisers.

Aubrey Jaap and Lindsay Mulcahy, who travelled from Butte, Montana, gave an outstanding and most gripping presentation entitled From Beara to Butte from The Butte Silver Bow Archives.

Professor Mary Gilmartin, Maynooth University, gave us another gripping presentation which she executed with precision.

Migration in Rural Areas; The challenges and the opportunities by Dr Andrea Cirbuco, University of Galway, was equally a masterpiece.

We had Luke Finkin and Kathleen Fitzsimmons from Leadville, Colorado who gave top notch presentations.

There were also local presentations which were exceptionally well received, too many to mention.

The three-day event brought together researchers, archivists, artists, historians and community voices form Ireland, United States of America and elsewhere.

This event, which was sponsored by Bantry Credit Union, promises to be a very worthy annual exercise.

By all account's preparation work has already began for The Allihies Copper Mine Museum Autumn School 2027.

Michael O'Sullivan,

Cahermore,

Allihies. 

EDITOR - A determined group with Cork's CUH consultant Dr Vitaliy recently went to Leinster House where they had a successful meeting with TDs and senators to hear and see their case and presentation for a return of a Stem Cell Transplant Unit to CUH.

Patients in need of this treatment have to go to Galway or Dublin.

The thing is there was a Stem Cell Transplant Unit in Cork's CUH.

It ceased operating 17 or 18 years ago, to be upgraded.

It didn't happen.

It is the hope with what they learned, politicians of all parties can persuade the Minister for Health and the HSE on the merits of returning a Stem Cell Transplant Unit quickly to Cork.

There has been a government response.

It will cost €28m and it hasn't been included in the capital budget for the next 12 months.

And that a project team started in 2024 designing the new unit.

There is optimism, it will resume in Cork in the next few years or sooner.

It shows the impact of people coming together for a good cause.

Mary Sullivan,

Cork.