Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendment No. 209 in the name of Senator Malcolm Byrne and in my name, which also deals with the issue of the content levy.

We dealt extensively with this at the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. When we dealt with Screen Producers Ireland, they were direct in making their case to us. It comes down to us asking ourselves, not only in this Chamber but as a society, whether we care what content we see on our screens and whether we are quite happy to see a plethora of it, given that we have a growing number of platforms, television stations and imported trash on our screens. It is true. Is that what we are entering? It is quite worrying. It goes back to something the Minister and I have discussed previously in terms of promoting domestic sport, such as the League of Ireland, in this country. People in RTÉ will tell the Minister that we can stick up a film from the 1980s and perhaps get better traction than putting money behind showing domestic sport.

Going back to original content, when we met with Screen Producers Ireland, they pointed out that the Olsberg report had estimated the gross value added of film, television and animation production in Ireland was €692 million in 2016 with full-time equivalent employment of nearly 12,000 jobs. In the intervening six years, the number of people employed in that sector has grown but the costs associated with that sector have equally grown. A case was made strenuously, and supported by RTÉ, TG4 and Virgin Media, by the way, for the introduction of the levy so that it could be harnessed. My party has called for it, from 3% but not more than 5% of the revenues from these subscribers, to ensure that fund is there to support that.

The issue we are debating here is the timeframe for the introduction. We were calling for that within one year. We were not looking to state, as it is outlined in the Bill at present, "an order imposing a levy on the media" may be made. We were looking for a timeframe so that we would have certainty with respect to that. That is what we have come down to and on which we would like to engage with the Minister.

If the Minister can address the additional amendment, No. 210, on how the levy should be calculated in terms of the amount of the subscriptions collected from audiences etc., and the amount paid by advertisers, I would appreciate it.