Ryan to face committee as broadcasting levy rejected

MINISTER FOR Communications Eamon Ryan is to appear this morning before the Oireachtas committee which unanimously rejected a controversial levy to fund the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

In a rare move, Government and Opposition politicians agreed at committee stage yesterday that the proposed levy as it stands should not proceed.

Instead, the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources passed a motion proposed by its chairman, Fianna Fáil TD MJ Nolan, that the statutory instrument bringing the levy into place be annulled before it is due to come into force next Thursday.

The committee wants to look again at the cost-effectiveness of the authority due to its impact on the broadcasting industry in the current economic climate.

A spokeswoman for Mr Ryan said the Minister was “acutely aware” of the financial predicament of independent broadcasters and the misgivings of politicians on all sides about the size of the levy, but she counselled against any “rabbit out of a hat” solution to the problems.

“The Minister is looking for solutions to this problem and to move forward together,” she said.

The levy has been imposed upon broadcasters to fund the authority, which is the industry regulator. It was set up in October last year.

The independent television and radio sector has claimed the proposed 26 per cent increase in the authority’s budget is unsustainable at a time when the industry is suffering a severe downturn.

Mr Nolan said the authority had failed to answer a lot of questions over how it proposed to operate, and he said he shared the concerns of all the members of the committee who felt the increase in budget from €5.2 million last year to €7.6 million this year was unjustifiable, when many broadcasters were facing a 20 per cent to 30 per cent cut in their incomes.

Mr Nolan said the principle that the broadcasting industry would fund the levy was not in dispute, but the authority was looking for too much money.

Fine Gael communications spokesman Simon Coveney said it was “not acceptable” that politicians were being asked to approve a levy without seeing details of how the money would be spent.

He criticised the authority for not publishing its work plan on its website, as it proposed to do in advance of the levy’s approval.

Labour communications spokeswoman Liz McManus said they were being asked to approve something which would have a detrimental impact on the finances of smaller radio stations, without knowing what they were supposed to be funding.

Ms McManus and other members of the committee criticised the authority for paying €150,000 to consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers to employ a financial controller to collect the levy.

The authority’s chief executive, Michael O’Keeffe, said they were aware of the concerns of independent broadcasters.

He told committee members that the authority had taken over the functions of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, which had a combined budget of €6.4 million.

In addition, the authority had now to regulate RTÉ for the first time.

It also had to provide new codes for advertising and standards, he added.

Mr O’Keeffe said they were striving to keep costs low, and any money not spent would be returned to broadcasters at the end of the financial year.