Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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182. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will remove the broadcasting levy applied to independent radio given that it is estimated to cost the sector approximately €2.5 million per annum; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53967/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Section 33 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 ('the Act') provides that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) may impose a levy on broadcasters for the purposes of meeting the cost of fulfilling their functions ('the broadcasting levy'). The design and implementation of the broadcasting levy is matter for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland as an independent regulatory body.

The Online Safety and Media Regulation (OSMR) Bill, which is currently before the Oireachtas, will dissolve the BAI and established a new body, Coimisiún na Meán, to oversee the regulatory framework for broadcasting, video-on-demand services and online safety set out in the Bill.

The new body will be funded by a levy which will be placed on all regulated entities, including broadcasters, which will ultimately replace the broadcasting levy. Specifically, section 7 of the OSMR Bill will substitute a new section 21 of the Act, which will provide the legal basis for Coimisiún na Meán to prepare and impose the levy or levies. Under that section, each category of regulated entity will be required to contribute proportionally to the cost of the functions relating to that category. In addition, community broadcasters will be exempt from the levy, which is not the case with the existing broadcasting levy.

Under the transitional provisions of the OSMR Bill, the existing broadcasting levy will remain in place until it is replaced by a levy made under section 21 of the Act (as substituted by the Bill), but only insofar as it is required to fund the broadcasting-related activities of Coimisiún na Meán.

A reduction in the broadcasting levy is not the only way to support the independent radio sector. At present, a number of schemes are available to the sector:

- the Sound and Vision Scheme operated by the BAI; and,

- in Budget 2023, I secured €6 million for the establishment of the Media Fund. This will initially fund two schemes, a Local Democracy Reporting Scheme and Court Reporting Schemes which will be administered by Coimisiún na Meán on a platform-neutral basis.

In addition to the 7% of net licence fee receipts which is used to fund Sound and Vision Scheme, I have allocated an additional €25.4 million in Exchequer funding to the Scheme since 2020. Over that period the Scheme has ring-fenced €5 million for independent radio and €1.2 million for community radio to be distributed through dedicated funding rounds. Any open rounds of the Scheme were also open to the independent radio sector.