Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to say a few words about the licence fee. I believe we are putting the cart before the horse. As I understand it, RTÉ came to the Oireachtas committee to look for approximately €60 million to keep going, and that is only some of it. We have no plan or transparency available from RTÉ or the Government as to what is going to be the case with RTÉ going forward. We have to talk about the people who have been taken to court day after day to pay the licence fee, and for what? Yes, we get good current affairs and news from RTÉ, but there are also a lot of deficiencies.

I do not watch television much but when we saw what was on television on Christmas Day, it was black and white films that were 80 years old. God Almighty, who gave them to RTÉ? It did not have to pay for them. We need transparency as to what is going on. We cannot see matches and we do not see enough culture, such as Irish music and dancing, or we see too little of it. Whatever wing TG4 is under, it is well run and is providing good entertainment, and it is where we see most of the matches.

We can see the Begleys from west Kerry playing the accordion. We can see something real. RTÉ, however, is looking for €60 million while at the same time it is giving the likes of Joe Duffy €400,000 and Ray D'Arcy another €400,000. That is almost €1 million. It has to stop. We know what Joe Duffy tried to do to the good people of Killorglin and the Puck Fair in 2022. He failed, however. The crowd was even bigger this year.

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