Lenny Abrahamson has said that Normal People was made for BBC and Hulu due to a "chronic" funding situation with RTÉ.
The hit show, which tracks the lives and relationships of Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan, is an adaption of Sally Rooney's book of the same name.
The 12-part series has been sold to territories around the world. It was shown on RTÉ but the national broadcaster was not involved in its development. The show was produced by Irish company Element Pictures.
Though Ireland has profited from the show being filmed here, Abrahamson lamented that the country will not reap all of the financial benefits.
"With Normal People, we had support from here - Screen Ireland were a big part of the story," Abrahamson, who directed the first six episodes of the series, told RTÉ Radio One's Arena.
"We took it to the BBC because of the chronic situation in terms of funding with RTÉ. They just would not have the capacity to develop it with us.
"It's such a pity. For relatively small money at the level of seed money, where you protecting an idea and doing the creative work at the very, very beginning, the opportunities to make things which have a global impact are vast.
"We really are so starved here across various parts of this arts ecosystem that we are forced to take really great things like that outside the country.
"We made it here. There was a huge amount of spending that happened here and there are big benefits in terms of that awful phrase 'soft power' - attention to the country, tourism.
"Unless we are prepared to make sensible investments which are not very large in the scheme of things in the national broadcaster and the arts generally, we won’t realise the benefits."
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