Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport
Revised General Scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Rónán Ó Domhnaill:
They are very much in their infancy. The first schemes are beginning now – local democracy and court reporting. We will have a review of those schemes next year and, as the Department officials mentioned, the review of public service content and the gaps there. Between the Sound and Vision scheme, there are six schemes recommended in the Future of Media Commission report - democracy, court, training and access, digital transformation and so on. On top of that, the Department allocated €6 million for commercial radio and commercial television as well. There is enough there to be getting on with at the moment. When the media fund is established on a platform-neutral basis and we could be looking at podcasting and so on, I expect the demand for funding will increase. The more we can match the demand, the healthier.