Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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952.To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht regarding the recently announced journalism schemes, if consideration will be given to removing the requirement to have 20% news and current affairs, which Independent Broadcasters of Ireland believes will require regurgitating stale news, and further disadvantage these important stations. [33030/24]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Future of Media Commission set out clearly that public service media and public service media content should be viewed as a public good, and as such, required an appropriate and sustainable source of funding.

The policy which has been developed on foot of the Future of Media Commission recommendations has focused on the rollout of two schemes to support and increase the production of specific categories of public service content - the Local Democracy and Courts reporting Schemes - and the Commission noted the need for sufficient resources to offer comprehensive coverage of matters relating to Local Democracy Reporting.

These two pilot schemes are the first of six recommended by the Future of Media Commission report and policy decisions in relation to future schemes have not yet been made and will take into account stakeholder feedback during the development process.

Future Schemes, including the Digital Transformation Scheme and News Reporting Scheme are likely to be beneficial to the commercial radio sector going forward.

The new Media Fund schemes, which aim to provide support for the provision of public service content by the wider media and journalism sector at local, regional and national levels on a platform neutral basis, are an addition to other supports for the sector such as the Sound and Vision scheme which have provided considerable support to the radio sector over recent years. The Sound and Vision Scheme supports public service content across all TV and radio broadcasters, including our local radio stations.

It should be noted that Coimisiún na Meán is responsible for licensing commercial radio services under Part 6 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 (as amended). As part of the licensing process, Coimisiún na Meán have the power to include requirements in broadcasting contracts in relation to news and current affairs content.