TG4 has been allocated a total of €65.4 million for 2026 in the budget, an increase of 9 per cent or €5.4 million from this year, but only slightly more than half of the €10 million uplift it requested in its pre-budget submission.
Deirdre Ní Choistín has welcomed the funding increase, which is the second largest annual jump TG4 has received in a budget in recent years, after €7.3 million was allocated to it in 2023 to launch its new children’s channel, Cúla4.
The broadcaster received €60 million in last year’s budget, up €3 million from 2023, but below the €78.6 million funding level it targeted for 2024 in its post-Covid strategy.
However, funding for TG4 improved drastically under the previous government and minister for media, Catherine Martin, rising by 60 per cent in the five years from 2020.
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Delivering his budget speech in the Dáil, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers said the additional funding will allow the Irish language broadcaster to expand its children’s programming output and its news service.
In an interview with The Irish Times last month, TG4 director general Deirdre Ní Choistín said the increase in the broadcaster’s funding over the past half-decade has been a “huge investment”.
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On Tuesday, Ms Ní Choistín said she is “deeply grateful” to Minister for Communications, Culture and Sport Patrick O’Donovan and his officials, “in particular the recognition for expanded news services for TG4″.
“Our audience has grown steadily as a result of this investment,” she said.
“This investment, as we approach thirty years on air, demonstrates the minister’s confidence in the TG4 team, the TG4 Board and in the value of TG4 as an Irish language public service media provider and the importance of the work we do for the Irish language and Irish language communities around the world.”
Last month, an Oireachtas committee recommended that TG4 receive multiannual funding packages instead of annual allocations in the budget, to give it certainty and bring funding for State-owned broadcasters into alignment with the European Media Freedom Act.
The Government’s Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill will give effect to the European Union act, which requires that State funding for public service broadcasting be predictable.
