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Departmental Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 July 2021

Tuesday, 6 July 2021

Questions (217)

Imelda Munster

Question:

217. Deputy Imelda Munster asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the funding allocated to the Sound and Vision Fund in 2019 and 2020 from all sources that contribute to funding the scheme. [36524/21]

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Written answers

Sound and Vision is a statutory scheme provided for under the Broadcasting Act 2009 and is largely funded by the television licence. Part 10 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 makes provision for the disbursement of 7% of the net television licence fee receipts to the Broadcasting Fund operated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which supports both the Sound and Vision (S&V) and Archiving Schemes. The Broadcasting Fund is primarily allocated to Sound and Vision content creation spending, particularly in open funding rounds. It is limited by statute to audiovisual and sound media and is independently administered by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. It should be noted that Sound and Vision rounds and Archiving projects can rollover across calendar years and under section 157 of the Broadcasting Act, 2009, the BAI may carry over funding into the following calendar year.

In 2019 the BAI received an allocation of €14.8m from TV Licence receipts for the Broadcasting Fund.

In 2020, the BAI was allocated €14.9m from TV licence receipts for the Broadcasting Fund and I provided a further €6.9m in Exchequer funding to the BAI in the course of the year, bringing the total to €21.8m. This is the first time that exchequer funding was provided to supplement licence fee receipts for the Fund. The additional €6.9m comprised €2m in the July Stimulus and an additional €4.9m in December 2020 in recognition of ongoing COVID-19 impacts on the sector . This increased the funding allocated by the BAI for Round 37 in December 2020 by €3m, and the additional €3.9m was carried over for disbursal in 2021. €1.4m of this funding has now been allocated for the live music sector (as part of Round 38) and €2.5m for the independent commercial radio sector (Round 39).

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