Significant new funding for climate change broadcasting projects for TV and radio has been announced by Ministers Eamon Ryan and Catherine Martin.
It follows a commitment in the Climate Action Plan published last year to support the development of media content that raises awareness of climate change and promote action and behavioural change to combat it.
A total of €5 million is being provided specifically for climate broadcasting with half of the money coming from the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Environment, and half from the Department Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.
Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan said that he does not think this will be a once-off round of funding for climate coverage, but that the Government needs to see how it works, test it, and try it out to make sure that it is the right model to support climate broadcasting.
Deputy leader Catherine Martin said she hopes it is just the beginning of financial support for telling the story of climate change.
The new climate reporting funds will be administered by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
BAI Chief Executive Celene Craig said she expects the money will support a wide range of projects including animation, documentaries, children's programmes and more.
She said she expects the BAI will set out a detailed policy related to the matter by the end of next week and that the climate action funding application process could start before the end of May.
Ms Martin said it is essential that people are informed of the threats posed by climate change and bring people on board with measures to tackle it.
"This Sound and Vision programming will show people what is happening to our climate and how to stop it," she said.
Ms Ryan said: "By improving climate literacy, we will enable people to make changes in their daily lives and engage with climate action at a local and national level".
In addition to the new funding for climate change content, Ms Martin also announced an additional €2m for live Irish music broadcasting productions, an additional €2m for Irish language programming, and an extra €1.5m for general sound and vision scheme projects.
This brings to €10.5m the total amount of additional funding for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's sound and vision scheme announced today.
Last year, additional funding of €1.4m for Irish music broadcasting projects through the BAI supported eight live music projects, including Irish Music Month and the New Local Hero award.
Ms Martin said music is very important to her personally and to the Irish people, and it is essential musicians are given every opportunity to perform for an audience through these difficult times.
She said the new funding complements the €50m support package for the Live Performance sector in general announced in December last year.
