Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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433. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will address a matter regarding radio legislation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10374/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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National and local radio makes an enormous contribution to the lives of individuals and communities in this country. I fully appreciate the difficulties faced by the independent broadcasting sector and my Department is working to ensure that positive changes are put in place. To date, independent radio stations have benefited from the Sound and Vision Scheme, funded from the licence fee, which provided over €494,000 towards 77 different radio projects for broadcast on independent commercial stations in 2018.

In addition, the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill contains a provision to allocate funding to the BAI from TV Licence receipts. This would provide up to a maximum of 50% of the annual cost of the BAI levy, in turn reducing the levy on broadcasters by up to 50%. The proposed amendment is currently at an advanced drafting stage. My Department continues to work closely with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in order to progress this work and ensure it is robust, with a view to having the Bill published in Q2 this year.