Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the IBI on 25 years of operation and I apologise for being a little late for the presentation. I have been a postmaster and I have benefited from the fraction of the licence fee about which witnesses have complained. It maintains much business in rural areas and we feel strongly about it. That is another day's work.

Will the witnesses flesh out the idea that funding as described would not fall foul of State aid restrictions for commercial entities and how this compares with RTE? There is another minor issue to do with public funds. Quite often, local authorities, State agencies and Departments place public service announcements or emergency information as advertising on independent, local and regional stations. They are charged for that, but I would see those as part of a public service. They would not happen every hour of every day in the week. If public funding came into the private companies, would there be a provision for this so that the public would not have to pay twice to get essential information out there?