Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State is very welcome and I thank her for taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. It is quite apt given what has been in the news for the past 12 or 18 months that we have been talking about funding models for a significant number of years and reforming the television licence. Indeed the joint Oireachtas committee, of which I am a member, launches a report today which proposes to abolish the licence and fully State fund services, which is something that was not agreed by all members but was a majority vote nonetheless. There need to be changes going forward, particularly to support public sector broadcasting, not just RTÉ as our national TV and radio station, but across all media throughout the country, which work so hard in providing public service broadcasting. This includes our local radio stations, our local newspapers and indeed other organisations, Virgin, Bauer and other organisations throughout the country which are not receiving any funds.

The future of media report which came out two years ago recommended the same and recommended support schemes to be put in place to assist local media in particular. Many of those schemes are not actually working and delivering on the ground. There is no core funding for the news and current affairs, particularly in the independent sector. These are the areas which are under extreme pressure in all other organisations, with regard to resourcing and indeed finances. They have a difficulty in attracting and retaining local journalists and keeping those newsrooms going. I have had significant engagement myself in my role as media representative for Fine Gael, along with a number of my colleagues. We have worked with Independent Broadcasters Ireland and we have met with Local Ireland and Bauer Media and it is clear to me that we need to put supports in place across all media.

To go back to local elections, we were all involved with supporting our candidates and that really showed the public service broadcasting element of all of those newspapers and radio stations, both local and national and the coverage that they gave us. The facts, the truth and the interviews we did not get on social media we got through our local radio stations. I recall Shannonside Radio, which is my local radio station, for Longford, Roscommon, Cavan and Monaghan doing interviews on two mornings at 2.30 a.m. and 3 a.m.. They ran right through until the count finished. That is public service broadcasting and that deserves to be supported. Should we have State funding put in place by the taxpayer? I do not think we should. We need to protect public service broadcasting into the future. Who knows, should a recession hit our country sometime into the future, will we see cuts to the funding? We need to make sure that there are dedicated funds in place and I would be very supportive of that fund being put in place through a fee and paid by everybody, for all media. The moneys collected in that would need to be monitored by Coimisiún na Meán, but that would be available across all media. As an idea, there could be 50% funding for RTÉ from that pot; and 25% for an enhanced Sound and Vision fund that all organisations, both local radio stations and national, could bid for, to provide not just new programming but to continue programming that has proved to be successful. Another 25% would be available for all media organisations, local and national, to provide for the public service broadcasting that they all do and are not being funded for at present.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State has four minutes.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State very much for outlining the funding that has gone into the sound and vision fund, which is very welcome, but personally I do not think it is sufficient. As I said, I feel it needs to be increased, expanded and widened out to those who can apply for it. However, there is an issue for the sound and vision fund in that it is for new content. It is for a new project, so it has to be reviewed every time. If people have been sanctioned to fund a certain project and want to continue that, they are not being supported. They have to go and develop another project. That needs to be changed. Some of the schemes we have mentioned, which are welcome, do not actually address some of the current difficulties with regard to news and current affairs because they deal with additional coverage to what is already taking place. We acknowledge that fantastic coverage is already happening with regard to local authority meetings, etc., in our local radio stations in particular. They are already doing it, so they are not going to be in a position to get additional funding for additional coverage because they do not have the capacity on their stations to give that additional coverage.

We need to redefine the schemes that have been put in place. As I said, we must widen the fund from the media fund that is going to be created. I do not agree with direct Exchequer funding. It needs to be a licence. I honestly believe this. I work in the post office. I meet people every day of the week when I am working there and have done over a long number of years. I think people will be quite happy to pay a charge once they know it is for the wider media sector, including their local newspaper and local radio station and other national broadcasters to which they are listening. People have this perception now that the fund is solely for one media organisation, which has done a fantastic job for the country. The director general appeared before the Oireachtas joint committee last night to speak on the new direction the organisation is taking and to list the cuts that have been lined out to streamline it going into the future. However, we need to support all the organisations, not just RTÉ. That is important.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which is very topical at the moment. I was watching part of the committee meeting last night while I was in my office. I acknowledge the fundamental challenges facing the sector and reiterate the Government's commitment to supporting the provision of public sector content by the wider media sector at local, regional and national levels. In particular, print and radio play a key role in Irish society in helping to inform public opinion and combat disinformation.

The television and radio sector continues to be supported on an ongoing basis through the sound and vision scheme, as administered by Coimisiún na Meán. In addition, support for the sustainability of the print sector has been provided through the reduction on VAT on newspapers from 9% to 0% since the start of 2023. I will certainly take on board the comments the Senator made about the difficulties with the scheme with regard to new reporting going forward. Many decisions are going to be made imminently and what we need at this stage is certainty going forward.