Mr. John Purcell:

The last budget announced a fund of €6 million for broadcasters which would be independent TV and radio. That funding has not made its way through to the stations yet because of the additionality question. We did receive special funding during Covid which was based on the emergency circumstances around it. We would advocate that the situation around news at the moment, and on the flipside of that misinformation, disinformation, bad actors and so on, is such that it should be deemed an emergency and special funding provided through the Sound and Vision scheme on that basis. We think that would be an ideal way for accountable funding to be used for public service ends. It has been done before and we think it could be done again.