The wider media sector in Ireland, which is a vital element of our democracy and society as a whole, is undergoing fundamental change. This is in part due to the increased digitalisation of news and media content generally and the associated decline in advertising revenue. For this reason, the Future of Media Commission was established to examine the challenges faced by the media sector and the impact on the provision of public service content.
The report made a number of recommendations to counter these challenges, including the establishment of a new media fund to provide support for the provision of public service content by the wider media sector at local, regional and national levels on a platform-neutral basis. The Commission recommended €30 million be provided. That included the funding already made available through the existing broadcasting fund, which amounts to an average of €15 million per annum from television licence receipts and which supports the Sound and Vision scheme. Since the formation of this Government, a further €28.4 million in Exchequer funding has been provided to Sound and Vision, enabling increased investment in public service content for television and radio.
With regard to the wider media fund, I secured €6 million in budget 2024 for new local democracy and courts reporting schemes. These are being prioritised for implementation by Coimisiún na Meán. The schemes will support the employment or engagement by media service providers of journalists for the production of public interest journalism.
While not directly linked to the upcoming elections, the overall purpose of the local democracy reporting scheme is to support local democracy reporting on a general basis through the provision of comprehensive coverage of the proceedings of local authorities and associated committees.
A process of engagement with the European Commission regarding state aid has concluded positively and it has been agreed that the schemes can be implemented without prior state aid clearance. In terms of next steps, it is now for Coimisiún na Mean to implement the schemes. A public consultation on the detailed design of the schemes opened on 4 April and will close on 2 May 2024. Once the schemes are finalised, Coimisiún na Mean will run a call for applications for both schemes. Further details on the timelines for the roll-out of the schemes will be made available by Coimisiún na Mean in due course.