TG4 has lamented what it called the “extremely slow and disappointing” progress of a government commission’s recommendation that the station regain editorial control of its news and current affairs programming from RTÉ.
In its pre-budget submission to the Department of Finance, seen by The Irish Times, the Irish language broadcaster has also said it requires a one-off investment of €1.9 million to upgrade its news studio in Baile na hAbhann, Co Galway.
Overall, TG4 is asking for an additional €11 million in funding in Budget 2027, bringing its total allocation for the next year to €76.4 million. The station received an additional €5.4 million in Budget 2026, only slightly more than half of the €10 million uplift it requested in its pre-budget submission last year.
In its 2027 submission to the department, the broadcaster said its top strategic priority for the year is to continue to push for multiannual funding, an arrangement that has already been put in place between the Government and RTÉ.
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TG4 and others have argued that the European Media Freedom Act, which mandates that State funding for public broadcasters be “adequate, sustainable and predictable”, means that multiyear funding agreements are required under European Union law.
“Without multiannual funding, TG4 cannot plan effectively, commit to longer-term investments and partnerships, particularly for drama and high-end content which involves multiple funding partners,” TG4 ard-stiúrthóir Deirdre Ní Choistín said in response to questions.
In its submission, the broadcaster said its second-highest strategic priority for the year is to progress the implementation of the Future of Media Commission’s recommendation that TG4 regain full editorial control of its news output from RTÉ.
RTÉ currently supplies the Nuacht TG4 news service to TG4. Despite being largely produced in TG4’s Connemara studios, the broadcaster has no editorial control over the service, which prompted the commission’s recommendation in 2022.
TG4 says it wants to allocate €3.3 million to its news and current affairs output in 2027, including the “one-off” investment to upgrade its news studio.
A spokeswoman for the station said the broadcaster would launch its digital news service later this year.
“Progress, however, has been extremely slow and disappointing on moving forward on editorial independence of Nuacht TG4 television news provided by RTÉ,” she said.
“We hope, however, to move forward with the recently appointed RTÉ managing editor of Nuacht, Joe Mag Raollaigh, to reach an editorial and operational agreement that delivers a distinctive news service with an appointment to view for TG4 audiences.”
Ní Choistín told The Irish Times last summer she was hopeful the matter would be resolved long before her term was over. “The key thing to move things forward is that I think Coimisiún na Meán and the department need to put a timeline on it,” she said.
“RTÉ is fully committed to delivering editorial independence to TG4 for their TV news service; we have put concrete costed proposals forward; and there are complexities we have to work through, particularly around staffing,” RTÉ said.
