SIPTU Conference: Thousands of spin-off service jobs to go if Government scraps tax scheme for film industry.Thousands of jobs will be lost if the Government goes ahead with its plan to scrap special tax incentives for the film industry, it was claimed yesterday.
About 15,000 people are employed on-and-off in the industry, which supports the equivalent of 4,000 full-time jobs, said Ms Jane Boushell, secretary of SIPTU's film branch.
Many of these jobs were under threat, she said, because of the plan to withdraw Section 481 tax relief for the industry at the end of this year.
Delegates to the SIPTU conference passed a motion calling on the Government to reverse its decision to remove the tax relief and instead "ensure a system of funding no less attractive than that existing in other EU countries is put in place".
The industry made a valuable contribution to the economy and withdrawal of the tax relief would have a "devastating effect", the motion said.
Ms Boushell said there would be "uproar" if a factory providing the same number of jobs faced closure. "Somehow there's a view out there that because it's the film industry, these aren't real jobs, but of course that is not the case."
In addition to direct employment, the industry supported a range of spin-off jobs in areas like catering and transport, she said. "And there are benefits for tourism as well. People come to this country specifically to see where films, like Braveheart for example, were made. In future they'll be going to Prague and other places instead." Ms Boushell, who is also group secretary of the actors' union, Equity, which is part of SIPTU, said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, had expressed concern about abuses of the tax scheme.
"If there are abuses we would appeal to him to close whatever loopholes are involved, but not to remove Section 481 relief entirely." Actors, other workers in the industry and producers would be jointly campaigning on the issue in the months ahead, she said.
Addressing the conference yesterday, Labour MEP Mr Proinsias De Rossa described the continuing gender pay gap in the Republic as "disgraceful", particularly for a state that had just experienced a decade-long economic boom.
"The EU puts the gender pay gap in Ireland at 78 per cent," he said. "In other words, women's average earnings are only 78 per cent of men's in Ireland.
"And we're moving backwards, not forwards. In 1997, the gender pay gap stood at 81 per cent, the fifth-widest gender pay gap in Europe. Now, alongside Britain, we're rock bottom," he said.
The four-day conference, attended by 500 delegates and 100 guests and observers, concluded with a rendition of The Watchword of Labour led by SIPTU's president, Mr Des Geraghty, who retires in a month. A large number of tributes were paid to Mr Geraghty, who said he was retiring from a job, but not from active participation in the trade union movement.
The union's vice-president, Mr Jack O'Connor, is to succeed him. Referring to Mr Geraghty as an "eternal optimist" yesterday, he drew laughter from delegates when he admitted: "In that regard we probably balance each other out."
