Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Community radio stations in Ireland are funded from various sources, including funds derived from donations, advertising and sponsorship. Section 154 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 assigned responsibility to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to develop and administer funding scheme(s) designed to support the production and transmission of high quality programming based on Irish culture and heritage to be funded from the allocation of 7% of the net television licence fee receipts. To the end of 2013 it has allocated a total of €122m.

The non-profit community radio stations receive a significant amount of publicly funded support from the Broadcasting Funding Scheme, one of the specified aims of which is the development of local and community broadcasting by providing funding for the provision of high quality, diverse and innovative programming by community broadcasters. This Scheme is currently funded by way of a set proportion of net television licence fee.

The current scheme 'Sound & Vision II' was approved by the European Commission to run until the end of 2014.

Accordingly a new Scheme is required and BAI has prepared and submitted a new draft Sound & Vision III scheme. Following scrutiny by my Department and in accordance with the obligations under the 2009 Broadcasting Act, I recently approved the draft Scheme under section 154 of the Broadcasting Act 2009. The proposed scheme will now be sent to the EU Commission for approval.

Finally, I should mention that the BAI also operates the Community Broadcasting Support Scheme, which is a separate development fund specifically established to enable community radio stations to evaluate their activities. The scheme provides funding for stations to carry out key review work to assist with their overall performance to build capacity. The BAI works closely with the community sector in this regard.