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

The Future of Media Commission report last year - members would have copies of it - has recommended the replacement of the Sound and Vision fund with €30 million for media, which would include not just radio and television but print and online as well. Until we get the future funding model, last year I ring-fenced, under the recommendations, €6 million to look at, first, local court reporting and local democracy. We are devising those schemes right now in consultation with the key stakeholders in this. This is a really positive move forward. There has been a state aid issue that has delayed the roll-out of the schemes, but we are going through that and the stakeholders understand that. The future funding will look like that. Instead of the Sound and Vision fund, we will have a media fund.