Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage (Resumed)
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Niamh Smyth (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I thank colleagues for their very heartfelt contributions today. Our officials present have taken copious notes on all the points raised. I have no doubt that they, along with myself, will relay them to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan.
There are two colleagues who remain in the House. I take Deputy Boyd Barrett's point and his concerns on the 25% but it is important to acknowledge that a lot of that will go to independent Irish content creators too, and they are all creatives. I hear what the Deputy is saying. We are only on Second Stage of this Bill so hopefully there will be an opportunity to give the Deputy the reassurance that it will be used wisely and used in a way that helps our independent Irish creators flourish too. Not everybody wants to work in RTÉ. Deputy Boyd Barrett and I both know that being from the creative industries. It is not for everybody and there must be a funding source for those independent creators who want to work outside the bubble of RTÉ. We have to find a way to do that, to fund that and to find a way it can be done in a transparent way.
In respect of the geo-blocking raised by Deputy Ó Murchú, I concur with everything the Deputy has said.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28