Seanad debates
Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Broadcasting (Funding) Bill 2003: Committee Stage.
The detail of the funding, including grant rates, the calculation of eligible costs and the allocation of funds among various categories, is best left to when the detail of the scheme is being drawn up. If one was to ring-fence amounts for specific categories of broadcasters or programmes, this could, in effect, lead to an inefficient use of the fund. As I said earlier, I considered this approach but decided against it. The objective of the fund is to encourage the provision of additional high-quality programming for the licence fee paying public. While the broadcasters will benefit from it, we have to remember that the fund is for the audience, the public, and not for the broadcasters. It is not there to aid, or in some way kick-start, broadcasters, but to provide additional high quality public service broadcasts in certain sectors to the public.
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