The Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Green Party coalition set up a Future of Media Commission under their programme for government 2020. The Commission subsequently called for submissions and Fianna Fail have just published their plans for the media in Ireland.
Fianna Fail’s plan calls for a new tax payer funded “fund” to be set up to bail out newspapers. Fianna Fail wants to “ring fence VAT on the sale of newspapers and use Revenue funds for part of the media bailout.
The proposal states “ In order to continue to provide unbiased, trustworthy fact based news and current affairs coverage relevant for Irish society at the expected standard, adequate public resources must be invested in producing it”
Fianna Fail have also proposed imposing a 6% digital adverting levy which would be additional to VAT already paid on digital adverting on all digital adverting sales in Ireland.
On the Future of Media Commission, The Burkean tweeted “There is no question of the potential of abuse of funds and compromising of this country’s media machine even further.”
The submission can be accessed here.
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