Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 307 seeks to amend the requirement for a video-on-demand service to have a share of European works in its catalogue of not less than 30% to further require a minimum percentage of works in the Irish language, being 5% from 2031 and 10% from 2036.

The requirement for a minimum share of 30% of European works is set out in Article 13(1) of the revised audiovisual media services directive, which is binding on all member states. The European Commission has published guidelines for member states regarding the method of calculating the share of European works in the catalogue of a video-on-demand service. Under section 159B(3) of the Broadcasting Act, as inserted by the Bill, it will be for an coimisiún to make rules to determine whether video-on-demand services meet the European works quota. I expect it will be heavily informed by the guidance of the European Commission in that regard.

I am aware that some member states have provided for a minimum quota for native language works in catalogues of video-on-demand services. For example, I understand that the legal instrument providing for the European works requirement in France, published last summer, included a requirement that 40% of works should be in the French language, subject to agreement between individual services and the French audiovisual regulator.

In the Irish context such a requirement is complicated by two factors. First, there is a relatively small catalogue of audiovisual works in the Irish language as a percentage of all audiovisual works in other languages. We are attempting to address this through increased funding for TG4 and initiatives such as Cine4, which, of course, funded the beautiful "An Cailín Ciúin", but there is still much work to be done. I understand that the amendment sets out to partially address this by pushing out the imposition of a quota to 2031 and 2036, respectively. However, there remains the risk that a perverse effect of the amendment would be to force video-on-demand services to provide a relatively smaller catalogue to meet the 5% and 10% quotas. This would not be to the benefit of audiences.

The second factor is the number of video-on-demand services that will be regulated in Ireland. Under the country-of-origin principle, those services established in Ireland would be regulated in Ireland for the entire EU. As drafted, the amendment would require those services to adopt the Irish language requirements for their catalogues. While this may have the potential, in the longer run, to be of the benefit to Irish audiences, it would not necessarily be in the interest of audiences in other member states. I cannot accept the amendment for that reason.

Amendment No. 308 seeks to require an coimisiún, in making rules for the promotion of European works, to have regard to "the prominence of Irish language works in view of the national aim of restoring the Irish language as a spoken language and language of media nationwide". Given that I cannot accept amendment No. 307, I also cannot accept this amendment, which is consequential to amendment No. 307.