Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin would abolish the television licence. The Government has spent a lot of time this evening talking about what that would mean for those who currently do not pay their licence fee. Of course, the people who would benefit most from Sinn Féin's proposal are those who do pay their licence, who often become financially strapped by the burden and increasingly wonder why they bother, considering how RTÉ has often squandered the fees that have been collected.

The following are the options: first, either the licence fee continues - with more and more people likely to refuse to pay it; second, the licence will be replaced by a household charge collected by Revenue, imposed on families regardless of ability to pay - added to all the many other stealth charges that the Labour Party, in particular, seems to love so much and; the third option is that public service broadcasting would be financed from the same source as all other public services are financed, namely, through progressive general taxation.

Sinn Féin is picking a side. We are with public service broadcasting. We are with the Irish public, who are clearly sending a statement by the growing refusal to pay the licence. We are also for accountability. Nobody in receipt of public funding, whether from taxation or from one of the Government's myriad stealth charges, should be able to waste that public money through corporate extravagances, flip-flops, making backroom deals with presenters, celebrities or private companies, vanity projects such as "Toy Show The Musical" or through first class flights or corporate seats at sporting events. Nobody should be able to waste public money like that without being held to account.

The licence fee should be abolished. Public service broadcasting should be protected and the expenditure for every red cent of Irish taxpayers' money should be accounted for transparently. Very simply, that is what the Sinn Féin motion calls for, and that is what those who reject our motion tonight will vote against.

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