Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Populist nonsense in this country will get us nowhere. Sinn Féin do not want pay for carbon tax, household charges, property tax and now the TV licence. Where will it end? This one big pot of taxation paying for everything is not sustainable. It is not a left-wing position that is credible in a modern democracy. It is simply not credible. Sinn Féin needs to learn that lesson once and for all. It will not work.

The issue for the Minister is that the Government's position is not sustainable either because it does not have a position. It would have been better off not putting forward the countermotion - at least we could vote on the Sinn Féin motion - because it does not have a position. It is quite obvious there are issues in the Government. It is quite obvious there are issues between the Green Party and probably Fianna Fáil on this issue. That is not sustainable either. For members of the Government to come to the House and not have a united front is not acceptable.

I also worry about workers. I wonder did Sinn Féin consult with the Communications Workers Union, CWU, on this populist move. CWU members have been ringing us, and I presume Sinn Féin, as they are worried about hundreds of jobs in An Post in Dublin, which will no longer exist if we go down the road outlined in the motion. Maybe Sinn Féin should talk to some of its TD colleagues in Dublin. It will be told about the phone calls I presume they received from the CWU in the past 48 hours. We listened to the CWU members and we understand them.

The Labour Party supports public service broadcasting. We have a long tradition of that. It was a Labour Party Minister, the current Uachtarán, who created TG4. Look at what a success that has been. "Laochra Gael" is one of my favourite programmes across all channels. Pound for pound, it is one of the best programmes I have seen made. I also have a concern, however, regarding how the jobs of independent workers and programme makers, those who are commissioned to do this work, are being dealt with and how, if the motion were passed, given the fact it is not structured right, it is not possible, it is populist and it does not provide the most adequate funds that are necessary, those jobs would be sustainable. I do not think they would be sustainable. I would be very concerned about many of those workers who do that work, and live and work near me, if a policy such as this were to be put in overnight.

As the Minister knows, when the issues with RTÉ broke, I spent days of my life going through them. I will not recycle them all. I will say that Kevin Bakhurst is doing a decent job. He is bringing workers with him. I know he has made mistakes. I have had issues with him that are well publicised but, broadly speaking, RTÉ is going in a certain direction. However, when the issues kicked off, the fact the Minister was not absolute in July last year in telling people they should pay their licence fee was not acceptable from a Minister in charge of communications. That wobble has probably brought us to today. We needed a Minister to be stronger at that time.

I also believe that we need to look more broadly at how we fund public sector broadcasting, which includes the independent sector. I respect the new proposals being brought forward and their proportionality as they relate to independent radio and everything else. That needs to be strengthened but it also needs to come with very strict conditions. We also need to look at the area of social media. I do not have enough time to go into that but that needs to be brought into it as well. The proportion of commercial funding, approximately 45%, which is currently required by RTÉ for it to stay standing, is not sustainable. I and the Labour Party accept the model has to change, but I will point out one simple thing on which I disagree with previous speakers. We would be very concerned if RTÉ were exclusively Exchequer funded because, at the end of the day, that will come to the floor of the House to be voted on. If RTÉ, TG4 or other receivers of such funding were to be highly critical of the government of the day, and it had the majority, that funding level could be dropped. A power lever would be brought into that relationship that concerns the Labour Party quite a bit. That is something we need to think about.

I will also raise another fact. The bringing of sporting events into the Act, which I accept and think is a good idea, is out for review, although a few of those sporting events are missing.

However, as the son of two parents in their mid 80s, I would rather see a funding mechanism that ensures they can watch GAA matches that are not behind a paywall on GAAGO. Whatever model is brought in, if it needs an extra €2 or an extra fiver, can we please deal with GAAGO and the League of Ireland? Someone needs to look at why the League of Ireland gets so little money for its contract with RTÉ. It is a surprise that TNT Sports or Sky Sports have not whipped it up, given the pervasive level of gambling and the need for matches. It is a wonder they have not snapped that up for reasons of exclusivity.

I bring up the issue of bogus self employment. I spoke about this at the Committee of Public Accounts. I will say this about the fact that 700 individuals are being treated the way they are, and that RTÉ has said it will take 15 years to sort out. The proposed €20 million that is possibly being put out to solve this issue will not come within an ass's roar of sorting it, and 15 years is not acceptable. We need a greater mechanism. We all know what happened. It was unacceptable. We need a greater mechanism to deal with that.

I hope the Minister takes on board what I am saying in a balanced way. We will not be supporting this motion. We do not agree with it. In fact, we think it is pretty comical. However, the Government does not have a position on RTÉ and public sector funding, and that is not acceptable either. This issue in Government between the Minister, the Tánaiste and others needs to be sorted out immediately. It needs to be sorted out immediately. When it is sorted out, we need proposals to come from Government in particular after the two reports commissioned on RTÉ have been brought forward. We need a sustainable plan from Government and a sustainable plan for the future funding of public service broadcasting on RTÉ. The one being put forward today is unfortunately not one, and neither has the Government to date brought forward one that we can judge.

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