WATCH: Major expansion at Troy Studios could bring 800 jobs and €100m spin-off

Nick Rabbitts

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Nick Rabbitts

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WATCH: Major expansion at Troy Studios could bring 800 jobs - and €100m spin-off

At the announcement of Troy's new expansion plan this morning were Siún Ní Raghallaigh, Troy CEO and Joe Devine, chairman PICTURE: SEAN CURTIN/TRUEMEDIA

TROY Studios in Limerick has unveiled massive plans which could see up to 800 staff working at the facility in Plassey's National Technology Park.

Up to 150 construction jobs could be created initially as part of the multi-million euro blueprint, which will see the studio - which hosted the production on the Netflix-bound sci-fi thriller Nightflyers - add a fourth sound stage to its offering.

The move will see its sound stage space 100,000 square feet, as well as doubling the studio footprint.

Troy Studios chief executive Siún Ní Raghallaigh said she hopes the first productions at the extended facility will roll in early 2020.

The move, Joe Devine, Troy's chairman said, will see the facility become "the largest international standard film and tv studio on the island".

"Quite critically, the additional space will enable us to host more than one significant production at a time, thereby ensuring maximum occupancy and employment. It will generate multiples of what was generated by Nightflyers," he said at an event this Monday.

During filming, Nightflyers, from the mind of Game of Thrones author George RR Martin - a psychological thriller described as 'Psycho in space' and set to air this autumn - provided employment to 325 people.

It's anticipated €100m of local value will be created with the additional studio space, and up to 800 people could be working in the studios at any one time on a number of productions.

"Today's announcement is another step to place Limerick and Ireland on the global film and television map," Mr Devine added.
Ossie Kilkenny, the director of Troy Studios, thanked those without whose help the facility would never have happened.

These included council chief executive Conn Murray, who he jokingly said should have a statue erected in his honour in Limerick city.

Ms Ní Raghallaigh added: "This move is significant as it means we can now pitch for twice the amount of work. We can double up on Nightflyers, and look at much bigger movie projects. It opens up our market. For me the ambition is we have a continuum of production.
"It's all about the pipeline of productions coming in. We are working very hard on that. What you see here is a physical manifestation of what we are trying to do in terms of encouraging that large scale production coming into the Mid-West."

So far, Troy Studios has invested €6.5m in the Limerick facility.

On Friday, Limerick City and County Council cleared the way for the firm's latest plans by granting the planning application for its expansion.