Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The words "RTÉ" and "crisis" are now almost synonymous. Repeated scandals have hugely damaged public service trust and confidence. Kevin Bakhurst and key members of the board are back in front of the Oireachtas committee today and there is a long way to go to rebuild trust in RTÉ. Senior management has an important role to play in this. We need a strong public service broadcaster that delivers important public service journalism in the public interest. To do this, we need a credible plan that addresses the enormous corporate governance failures identified. There must also be accountability for what has happened and full transparency going forward. However, the management team cannot do this alone. To proceed, it needs the Government to make a decision on reform of the TV licence. In its current form, it simply is not working and I think we all agree on that.

Sinn Féin has proposed scrapping it and replacing it entirely with Exchequer funding. I disagree with that position and do not think it has been thought through. Making RTÉ entirely reliant on State funding opens it up to risk of political influence. That flies in the face of the entire purpose of an independent public service broadcaster that plays a key role in holding the government of the day to account, not to mention that it would leave RTÉ's budget vulnerable to cuts during times of economic shock. It is not a tenable solution.

The Social Democrats have proposed a three-stranded funding model comprising some guaranteed multi-annual Exchequer funding, a public charge and a levy on social media companies. We need public service journalism now more than ever because of the misinformation and disinformation spreading like wildfire on social media. It is undoubtedly damaging our democracy. We believe social media companies should pay a levy to support public service journalism because trusted independent media is more important than it ever has been due to social media platforms' inability to self-moderate. A TV licence in an era where an increasing number of people stream content on their phones and tablets is completely outdated. It should be rebranded as a household public service journalism charge at a lower rate than the existing TV licence but collected in the same way. It is not appropriate for Revenue to be tasked with collecting something that is not a tax.

Incredibly, we are still waiting for the Government to outline what it intends to do. The Taoiseach says he has to wait for two more reviews before indicating what his plan is. That bears the hallmarks of delaying tactics. We know the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, favours Exchequer funding and the Tánaiste prefers the broadcasting charge collected by Revenue. What is the Taoiseach's position and when can we expect the Government to finally agree its proposal? The Taoiseach says it will be this year, but when this year?

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