Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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284. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if the additional €2.5 million in sound and vision funding will include a provision for spending in news and current affairs programming and to support live programming; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61942/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Broadcasting Fund is provided for under Part 10 of the Broadcasting Act, 2009, and supports the Sound and Vision Scheme and Archiving Scheme.

The Broadcasting Fund is funded primarily by 7% of television licence revenues, but can also be augmented by Exchequer funding. Since taking office, I have secured significant additional resources for the Scheme, which has enabled increased and targeted investment in the wider broadcasting sector, including funding rounds specifically for radio content.

Over that period the Scheme has delivered €5m in ring-fenced rounds for the commercial radio sector, which has also received almost €2m additional funding through other rounds. The additional €2.5m in Exchequer funding that I announced in the Dáil on 30th November 2022 will also be ring-fenced for the commercial radio sector.

The provisions of the Broadcasting Act limit the funding which can be provided under Sound and Vision to the production of programming on Irish culture, heritage and experience. While live programming that meet these criteria is permissible, the funding of local or national news and current affairs programming is not. However, in Budget 2023, I secured €6m for the establishment of the new Media Fund on an administrative basis. This will initially fund two schemes, a Local Democracy Reporting Scheme and a Court Reporting Scheme. They are to be administered on a platform-neutral basis and I expect that local radio will be well-placed to benefit significantly under these schemes. My intention is that these will be in play before the end of 2023, with the other schemes recommended by the Future of Media Commission to come on stream at later dates.