Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 41:

In page 45, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following:

“Duties in the broadcasting of sport and interactive games and polls

9.The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 39:

“Duties in the broadcasting of sport and interactive games and polls

39A.(1) Coimisiún na Meán shall prepare and publish a report no later than one year following its establishment proposing recommendations on how the State could work to ensure that—

(a) enjoyment of live broadcasts, subsequent transmissions and online media coverage of sports by television and audiovisual media service providers is extended, to the greatest extent possible,equally to the whole community of the island of Ireland,particularly in the case of, but not limited to, events of major importance to the Irish nation, and

(b) participation is equally accessible to the public across the whole of the island of Ireland and not restricted to any one part or parts of the island in the event of any game of chance, interactive competition or poll, including phone-in, SMS, or online competitions, quizzes and surveys organised by a television broadcaster or audiovisual media service provider.

(2) From 1 January 2024, Spórt Éireann shall only provide assistance to an organisation under section 8(4)(a) of the Sport Ireland Act 2015, following the commencement of this Act, where that organisation makes every practicable effort within their control, such as through the licensing of broadcasting rights to their events, to ensure that any broadcast of events organised by the licence-holder, whether live, in subsequent transmissions, or in online catalogues, is made equally accessible to the public on the whole island of Ireland, and places no barrier to their equal availability across the whole island.”.”.

Similar to the previous amendment, this deals with the duty of broadcasters to the whole island. We have reworded our amendment since Committee Stage as it was ruled out of order, but thankfully that is no longer the case. Subsection (1) calls on the coimisiún to prepare a report within a year on how TV and audiovisual coverage of sport, especially major sports events, as well as access to participate in phone-in or online competitions, polls or games, could be extended to the whole island. This deals with what was discussed on Committee Stage. Supporters of both teams in the North are not allowed to watch their own team play and are being denied entry to competitions during the game which features their own team or the team they support.

It is a matter of examining how we can end this exclusion.

Subsection (2) goes a step further and will make Sport Ireland funding to sports organisations conditional on making every practicable effort to ensure broadcasting rights for their events are equally accessible North and South. Sporting organisations will still be allowed to decide not to do so to maximise profits by selling broadcasting rights in a way that will leave people on one side of the Border without equal access, but they will not be allowed to receive State funds if they do so. This will come into effect in January 2024. I hope Deputy Catherine Martin, as Minister with responsibility for both media and sport, can accept the amendment and ensure State funding will not be used to divide Ireland further by cutting off almost 2 million people on the island from participating in key sporting moments for the nation.

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