Vol. 569 No. 4
117 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the progress to date on the proposed comprehensive study of the current status of the Irish language in the media as outlined in the programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [217828/03]
The Deputy will appreciate that I have no statutory responsibility in relation to the media. However, as was outlined in the progress report on An Agreed Programme for Government for the period June 2002-June 2003, the Government is committed to increasing both the quantity and the quality of Irish-language broadcasting nationwide. The progress report noted that as part of the Governments reforms of public service broadcasting, RTE's statement of commitments commits it to increasing the amount of Irish and bilingual programming; the Government will shortly publish legislation aimed at providing 5% of the television licence fee for a public service broadcasting fund to develop additional public programming, including Irish language programming; and the Government will also establish TG4 as a separate statutory body, in line with legislation already enacted.
