Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Community Broadcasting: Discussion

12:55 pm

Ms Sally Galiana:

That is the problem. We rely on funding - Sound & Vision, for example, is not assigned to pay for operational costs. Sound & Vision is only assigned to produce radio programmes. We must find a way to save money from producing the radio to be able to invest in operational costs. It is really difficult. I travel around Europe and look at the situation for community radio. In France, for example, a community radio station with a licence receives between €20,000 and €40,000 from the regulator. Under the Austrian model, when doing a simple application for funding they explain what content they will deliver. Also, all the outreach and facilitation work with community organisations in the background gets €150,000. I feel a great deal of healthy envy.