Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport

General Scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed)

2:00 am

Mr. Bill Tyson:

In the past, we were funded through Sound and Vision, which was a bit of a lottery because you have to go through a big process, make an application and you may be successful or may not be. About 12 years ago, we were incredibly successful. I was not involved then. We employed seven people and had a studio and hundreds of thousands of euro were coming in. Then literally all that stopped and nothing came in for several years, which put us into a financial crisis. We paid all those debts subsequently but it was a difficult period. We now get some funding for training. It amounts to less than €20,000 annually. We get social benefit funding from the Sound and Vision fund, which we greatly welcome and is a step in the right direction. It is worth about €75,000. Some goes on content and staffing. It is not a huge amount of money but it is regular. We have to apply for it every year but we have been getting it for the past couple of years. That is where we are at.