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

The purpose of this amendment is to require coimisiún na meán to carry out research on the introduction of investment obligations on media service providers operating in the State. The amendment also provides that the Minister shall present draft legislation before the Houses of the Oireachtas outlining proposals for the introduction of investment obligations for audiovisual media service providers not later than six months following publication of the report.

Before addressing the substance of the proposed amendment, I wish to note that it was determined that a content production levy was the most appropriate approach in the Irish context. As with the existing sound and vision scheme administered by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the model envisaged in the Bill would allow producers to compete for funding on a transparent and competitive basis in line with objective criteria. This would not be the case with investment obligations, where decisions on the nature of content to be funded would sit with the company subject to the investment obligation. Furthermore, it is not possible under EU law to introduce an investment obligation based on a specific production location within Europe. Our approach in respect of the content production levy already ensures a minimum of 25% of funds raised must be allocated to the production of Irish language content. It is also worth noting that any investment obligation would have to be for the production of European works and not necessarily Irish content. Many major EU-based providers targeting Ireland would likely already fulfil that requirement through their existing investments, so there may not be a substantial net benefit to Ireland from such a measure.

I do not propose to accept this amendment as I am of the view that section 7 of the Broadcasting Act as inserted by section 7 of this Bill will contain appropriate provisions to enable an coimisiún to carry out research in relation to this matter. I draw the Deputy’s attention to section 7(5)(d), which enables the commission to conduct strategic reviews on a number of matters including the funding of sector. I also note that the Minister will have the power under this provision to direct an coimisiún to carry out research on any matter connected to its functions.