Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Carrigy for raising this important matter and I am replying today on behalf of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin to provide an update. I do not think anyone would disagree with what the Senator has said about local radio, local news and local journalism. They are so important to people the length and breadth of the country. That came to the fore during Covid, when many locally in their own particular areas got the information required first hand. Local and national media play an essential role in sharing reliable and relevant news and bringing communities together.

The wider media sector in Ireland which is a vital element of our democracy and society as a whole, is undergoing fundamental change. This is in part due to the increased digitalisation of news and media content generally and the associated decline in advertising revenue as a consequence. The report of the Future of Media Commission examined the challenges faced by the media sector and the consequent impact on the provision of public service content. The report made a number of recommendations to counter these challenges and I support the provision of public service content. The Future of Media Commission set out clearly that public service media and public service media content should be viewed as a public good and, as such, required an appropriate and sustainable source of funding.This Government is committed to delivering the necessary reform to put in place a sustainable long-term funding model. High-level discussions are ongoing at Cabinet level in respect of a decision on the future funding model. One recommendation made by the Future of Media Commission was the establishment of a new media fund to provide support for the provision of public service content by the wider media and journalism sector at local, regional and national levels on a platform-neutral basis, which is what the Senator has spoken to. The commission recommended that €30 million be provided. That included the funding already made available through the existing broadcasting fund, which amounts to an average of €15 million per annum from television licence receipts and which supports the sound and vision scheme. Since the formation of this Government, a further €28.4 million in Exchequer funding has been provided to sound and vision, enabling increased investment in public service content for television and radio.

With regard to the wider media fund, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, secured €6 million in budget 2024 for new local democracy and courts reporting schemes. The media fund is being established on an administrative basis, with the local democracy and courts reporting schemes being prioritised for implementation by the media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, this year. The local democracy reporting and courts reporting schemes will operate as contestable award schemes on a platform-neutral basis, under which Coimisiún na Meán will award successful applicants with funding to support the production of public service content over a fixed period through the deployment of additional journalistic resources.

The core focus of the local democracy reporting scheme will be to provide comprehensive coverage of the proceedings of local authorities and associated committees. In addition, it is intended that local democracy reporters will carry out other tasks outside of providing reports of meetings, including reporting on the functions and activities of local authorities, reviewing publications and records to identify stories of public interest and reporting on other matters relevant to local democracy that are in the public interest. The overall purpose of the courts reporting scheme will be to fund comprehensive, professional and publicly accessible reports of court proceedings at a District and Circuit Court level. The fewer cases that are reported, the less aware the public is of the rule of law and the less informed they are as to whether the administration of justice is functioning as it should. Coimisiún na Meán carried out a public consultation on the scheme between 4 April and 8 May this year and preparatory work with regard to the launch of the schemes is ongoing.