Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On amendments Nos. 208 to 210, inclusive, the joint committee noted that no implementation date is set. It is important that we add a date. Whether it is feasible to set a date of 1 January 2023 or 12 months from now, I do not know. The latter might be more feasible because we do not know when the Bill will be enacted. We have a long way to go yet before that happens but we are getting there.

One point the joint committee took from its meetings with the various media companies, including Virgin, TG4 and RTÉ, was the pressing need for significant investment in Irish programming. That has to happen. Many of the subscription and advertising services are gaining huge revenue from households across the country, creating a loss for the likes of RTÉ that are producing programming here. The sooner we bring in this legislation, the better. As I said, in our discussions with Screen Producers Ireland and the various companies producing programming in Ireland, the joint committee heard that this legislation needs to be implemented. It is important that we provide a fixed date, not later than 12 months from now, by which it will be implemented to ensure we get proper home-produced programming. We value this programming but it has been under-resourced in recent times because these other companies are making significant profits off us.