Departmental Bodies

116. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to list the agencies under his Department’s aegis which have had a real-terms cut in Budget 2027 compared to Budget 2026 when inflation is factored in and where he expects the resulting cuts to be made. [74421/26]

Ar dtús báire, guím biseach ar an Aire, an Teachta O’Donovan, a bhíonn anseo de ghnáth. Tá súil agam go mbeidh sé anseo ag troid linn arís amach anseo. This question concerns the agencies under the Department's aegis that have basically had a real-time cut in Budget 2027. Where does the Minister of State expect those cuts to be?

We all join this evening in sending our best wishes to the Minister, who obviously cannot be here. I am taking questions on his behalf. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back here as soon as possible. The Budget 2027 allocation to the Department is set out at a programme level in the expenditure report published by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. The total allocation to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport for 2027 is €1.296 billion. This comprises €848 million in current funding and €450 million in capital funding. This allocation provides for a full year of the permanent basic income for arts; increased funding for the Arts Council and Sport Ireland; support for the Ryder Cup and UEFA Euro 2028; the development of IE Alert, which is the new public warning system; and continued investment in the media sector. The overall increase in current expenditure allocated to the Department in Budget 2027 over the allocation in the 2026 Revised Estimates volume was just under 2.7%. There were a number of once-off allocations in 2026 with regard to the EU Presidency and the additional pay fortnight. Taking those into account, the increase for the Department for 2027 is 4.2% before the application of the expenditure levy. In terms of capital funding, the allocation for next year broadly reflects the NDP allocations, in particular the completion of the build stage of the national broadband plan and the fact that Shared Island funding is not allocated until the Revised Estimates Volume for the Public Service process is completed. Allocations to each subhead as part of the budget process were made based on the total available funding in the context of the competing demands across the Department. Final allocations for 2027 will be published as part of the Revised Estimates Volume later this year and then notified to bodies and agencies under the Department's aegis.

Inflation for 2026 is 4% so if one only increases any budget by less than that, there has to be a cut just to stand still so there is no increase involved. If the Minister of State said that the budget for the Department is a 2.7% increase, that is not an increase in real terms. He went on to say that there was one-off expenditure. There is also one-off expenditure in next year's budget. The Minister of State even listed it. If we take this out, we will still end up with a minus budget for the arts in real terms rather than a plus one. There has been no increase for TG4 - not even a 2.7% increase - so what is the story there? Where will the cut happen in TG4?

Across Government over the course of this past budget, a very strong effort was made to ensure value for money across all Departments and to ensure that overall Government spending is maintained at a maximum of 6%. Regarding my Department's funding for 2027, when one takes out the exceptional items from last year, which included the EU Presidency, which had significant funding requirements in preparation for this six-month period and over the six-month Presidency, and the exceptional situation facing all Departments this year involving an additional pay run in 2026 - an additional pay fortnight - we were just around the 4% mark with 4.2% before taking into account the expenditure levy. There has been significant increases in funding for TG4 over the past number of years. I think there has been an increase of around 75% since 2020. We continue to support the really important work TG4 does.

TG4 has spoken for itself. It was encouraged to set out an annual plan to grow and create more content and now it is being told that it will be getting a cut because that is what it is in real terms rather than the €11 million it needed to achieve next year's growth, which it laid out to the Government and which was accepted as far as TG4 was aware. There was a plan for the next three years. The same is true of the Arts Council. It was given an increase of €2.5 million rather than the €3.5 million that would leave it standing still so, again, that means a cut. This year's budget for the basic income for the arts will not even be spent so a single year is allocated for next year. If it is going to be the same then the budget in that instance will not be spent.

The basic income for the arts was a really significant departure in terms of budgeting for next year because it is the first time that we have a permanent basic income for the arts scheme, which is really significant. It is very significant for the arts across the country and is recognised across Europe as the first scheme of its type. Across the rest of the Department, within that overall increase of 4%, we have sought to make sure that it has as much impact as it possibly can. There is no doubt that when one looks at all of the different asks we have received from different agencies under our remit, the asks will be much higher than what was going to be possible in the budget. Our objective in respect of the increase we received this year is to ensure that we have the biggest and most significant impact for the public that are served so well by so many of our agencies be it TG4 or any of our other agencies, which do exceptional work.