Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In circumstances where the contribution from the Department of Social Protection is 27% of RTE's revenue, one cannot ignore this very significant contribution. At some time in the past it was capped at the rate of the television licence at the time. In fact, the contribution is something like €144 per licence whereas the rest of us are paying €160. It would be unconscionable were that to become the pattern, that €5 million is taken this year, €6 million next year and €7 million the following year. This, in turn, would have very serious implications for the major change that is proposed which is a transition from the traditional TV licence to a household-based charge designed to tackle the level of evasion and deal with the issue of converging technologies. What would be the point of making that transition if one's income was being diminished by the Department of Social Protection on a different basis? This is an issue for my Department and for RTE. It is not proposed to introduce a new charge nor an additional charge; it is proposed to transition from the existing TV licence at a levy or charge not greater than the existing TV licence, to improve the efficacy of the collection system and to acknowledge that people are now accessing public service content on platforms other than the traditional TV set.

I agree there would be implications. Clearly it has aggrieved people in RTE who believe that in order to deliver the injunction placed on them by the Department or the Minister to break-even last year, this was such a big request, given the deficit of €67 million reported the previous year and that then to be hit without notice and two months before the end of the year with a further €5 million reduction, was difficult. However, the Government was faced with circumstances where it had to make savings wherever it could find them because of the exigencies of meeting a budget deficit figure to which we had subscribed and which was required of us by the troika. The Government was in a very awkward position but I would like to think that this is the end of it. In my judgment, if this were not the end of it, it would raise a question about the merits of the transition to a household-based charge.