Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To follow on from my colleague, the Minister spoke about the reform aspect and waiting for the two Government reports. People are sceptical about that because the Future of Media Commission was commissioned and brought a report out before any of these scandals. That report should be taken on its own merits. People fear that the Government is kicking it down the road until after the local and European elections. From what we can gather, Fianna Fáil, and perhaps Fine Gael, want to bring in a new household charge. That would be vehemently opposed by ordinary hardworking people who have enough of more taxes being imposed on them. From what we can gather, the Green Party supports the same model as Sinn Féin, direct Exchequer funding, but it is not being allowed to proceed with it by the other Government parties. Will the Minister make a commitment that a decision will be taken before the local and European elections? Otherwise, we will conclude that the Government is playing politics with RTÉ. The revelations yesterday were astounding. People got €450,000 on their way out the door and we have to pay the tax liability on it. The total figure could be as high as €600,000.

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