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

I met the chairman and the director general recently and I have structured meetings with them throughout the year. They left me in no doubt that they have kept their side of the bargain which was that when it did not seem very feasible this time last year - as I made plain to this committee before and to competitors in the broadcasting space - that we required RTE to break even. This is the middle of January but the advices I have received are that RTE will break even. I acknowledge it was aggrieved at the additional hit of €5 million above and beyond that requirement. On the question of whether I think there will be a bigger pool of money, evasion is creeping up towards 20% which is a lot of money. On the question of whether the household-based charge will address this shortfall, it depends on the efficacy of the collection system. Provided it can be comprehensively and efficiently collected the theory is it should generate more revenue. There is not much point in taking in more revenue with one hand and having it taken away with the other.