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

This has been discussed at length. In general, the public is sick of the same debates and conversations happening over and over and people are starting to tune out. That dampens the public appetite for a public service broadcaster and the value of all of that. A limited number of options are available and at some point the Government will have to pick some of them. The Taoiseach says he is in favour of some Exchequer funding; we agree with him and think there should be some guaranteed multi-annual Exchequer funding. Will the Taoiseach outline his position on a reformed licence fee that is not based on a TV, because we know that is dated? Will he outline his opinion on the potential for a charge for social media companies, which seem incapable of managing their platforms and the spread of misinformation?

It seems the Taoiseach is yet to come to a position on this so I ask him to consider the position of the Social Democrats, namely, some guaranteed multi-annual Exchequer funding, a TV licence fee reduced and rebranded as a public service journalism charge and not based on televisions, as well as a charge for social media companies.

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