Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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177. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to have all of Ireland's UEFA nations league games shown on terrestrial television in view of the fact that these games are competitive and will affect Ireland's ranking; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38149/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) provides that Member States may designate sporting and cultural events of major importance to society as free-to-air. At a national level, the Broadcasting Act 2009 sets out the statutory process for designating events as free-to-air. Under Section 173 (2) of the Act. I am obliged to review the list of designated events every three years. The purpose of the review is to consider the appropriateness of the current list of designated events and to examine whether to add any events of major importance to society.

The most recent review was finalised in 2017 and approval was received from the European Commission to designate the All Ireland Senior Ladies Football and Camogie Finals as events of major importance. 

As part of review process, the Department carried out a period of public consultation and submissions were received for the inclusion of a number of different sporting events. The UEFA Nations League is a new competition and was not among those considered during this time. The qualification system for Euro 2020 remains largely the same until the playoff round and Ireland's home and away games in these qualifiers will be shown on free-to-air television as per the most recent designation.

The events currently designated by Order (S.I. 465 of 2017) can be found at the following link: . The current list of designated events will be reviewed again in 2020.