Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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70. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the actions that have been taken to support and strengthen the media sector since 27 June 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62770/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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A diverse, vibrant and independent media sector is essential for our society, democracy, cultural development and indeed social cohesion. However, it is a sector that is undergoing profound change. Government recognised this, and established the Future of Media Commission to examine how media should serve Irish society, how well the current system meets these goals and what changes ought to be made to improve media in Ireland in the future.

Government accepted, in principle, 49 of the 50 Commission’s recommendations, demonstrating how committed the Government is to supporting the media sector, and in particular public service media. Following publication of the Report, Government established an Implementation Group to devise an action plan to give effect to the Report’s recommendations and to oversee their implementation. I intend to bring this action plan to Cabinet shortly.

A key element in supporting the future development of the media sector will be a new regulator which will underpin an enhanced regulatory and developmental framework. This new regulator – Coimisiún na Meán – will be established in early 2023 under the provisions of the recently signed Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, 2022. I secured funding of €7.5m to support this work in 2023. In addition to the regulation and support of the broadcasting sector, the new regulator will play a significant role in regulation of video on demand services, the wider media sector, and online safety.

As the Deputy will be aware, the main source of direct support to the media sector is provided through the Broadcasting Fund, in particular the Sound and Vision Scheme, which is administered by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). Sound and Vision supports the production of programming on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and 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. Since June 2020, additional Exchequer funding of €19.9m has been provided and this year alone, additional Sound and Vision allocations have enabled an extra €1.5m for general funding rounds; €5m for a first Climate Action and Climate Change round (jointly funded with Minister Ryan); €2m for the live music sector; and €2m for Irish language content productions. Most recently I announced an additional €2.5m for a funding round for the commercial radio sector which will be put in place in 2023.

Looking forward, the recommendations in the Future of Media Commission Report included the conversion of the Broadcasting Fund into a Media Fund to provide funding to the wider media sector. The Report also recommended that in addition to the two existing support schemes (the Sound and Vision Scheme, and Archiving Scheme), the Media Fund should support six new schemes. These include a Local Democracy Reporting Scheme and a Courts Reporting Scheme, which are being prioritised for roll out next year, and for which I secured an allocation of €6m in Budget 2023, and which should benefit the local and regional media outlets in particular.

In addition to increased levels of funding for Sound and Vision, this year the Government provided an additional allocation of €15m for RTÉ in response to the recommendations of the Future of Media Commission. I have also increased funding to TG4, securing, in line with recommendations, the largest increase in exchequer funding of €7.3 million for 2023, bringing their total allocation to over €52m. This increase follows on from increases of €3.5m in Budget 2021 and €4.2m in Budget 2022. These increases will enable TG4 to continue to better serve Irish-speaking communities, provide increased support to our regional creative companies, and introduce a new dedicated Irish language children’s channel, Cúla4.