Nearly €380m for arts and culture in Budget 2025

01 Oct 2024, 13:14 · RTE.ie

The Government has allocated almost €380 million to arts and culture in Budget 2025.

€107 million will go to the Gaeltacht, which will provide supports to Irish speaking communities in the Gaeltacht and beyond.

€226 million will go to tourism, while €328 million will go to media, including €6 million for the independent broadcasting sector.

Sports clubs and organisations across the country will receive €231 million.

"I believe that Ireland holds a unique position in the world, where our culture, ár dteanga and our artists are the beating heart of our society," Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said in his Budget speech.

"There are record numbers visiting our national cultural institutions.

"Irish writers are some of the best in the world - giving us pause to reflect on the world around us, to make sense of it or, indeed, to escape it entirely for a moment," he added.

The Government also plans to introduce a new tax credit for unscripted programmes as part of Budget 2025.

The credit would offer a 20% relief on qualifying expenditure of up to €15m, for programmes like reality TV or gameshows that are made in Ireland.

The introduction of the relief is subject to European Commission approval.

Like other audio-visual reliefs, a production would also need to meet a cultural test in order to qualify.

Alongside this, Minister for Finance Jack Chambers also announced plans for an additional relief for smaller feature film projects.

This would give an 8% uplift to productions with a maximum qualifying expenditure of €20m.

This change will also require European Commission approval.

In his Budget speech, Mr Chambers also said his department was to monitor trends in the visual effects sector with a view to introducing a specific relief in Budget 2026.