Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Pre-notification must be first provided, after which final approval will be given. As I stated, however, I want to proceed to procurement and I do not have to wait for final Commission approval before doing so. Both processes will be done in parallel to save time. The idea of delaying the procurement process until Commission approval is given is not attractive to me as I want to drive on with both processes.

On the Eircode project, I have no doubt the report produced by the Comptroller and Auditor General will be dealt with in due course by the relevant committee and the Accounting Officer in my Department. It is worth commenting, however, on the headline figures of €38 million, which was given by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and €27 million, which I gave as the estimated cost of the project. During the implementation phase, the cost of the contract was put at €27 million, with €16 million in the first two-year initial roll-out period. The bulk of this figure - €9.4 million - was spent on encoding public sector bodies' databases, with €1.2 million per annum provided for the remaining years of the contract. The difference between the figure of €27 million and the figure of €38 million relates to the inclusion of VAT, consultancy costs and internal staffing costs in the latter figure. This means the cost of the staff who were involved in the project have also been wound into the €38 million figure. I would not describe staff costs as a notional cost as we have to pay the salaries and wages of staff in the Department but they are among the additional items that make up the gap between the €27 million cost of the contract and the €38 million figure provided by the Comptroller and Auditor General. That explains the difference between the two figures.

On the licence fee, we all have our views on value for money for the licence fee. To return to the measurement of outputs and the need to be objective about these issues, we have an objective system for examining value for money in public service broadcasting, namely, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland five-year reviews. On foot of the most recent five-year review, NewEra was asked to carry out a assessment of RTE and members will have seen the report NewEra produced. On any objective reading of the report, RTE emerges well compared with other public service broadcasters in Europe, and in its own right. There is no doubt that there has been a substantial cost reduction programme in RTE, with several hundred staff positions removed from the organisation during the retrenchment period. Colleagues may wish to consider the NewEra report when assessing whether RTE provides value for money. If I were asked directly my view, I would respond that RTE provides value for money, although there is always room for improvement in public service broadcasting. We should continue to fund public service broadcasting, as every Government since the 1920s has done because they have recognised the value and importance of public service broadcasting.

I agree with the comments made on the unacceptable level of television licence fee evasion. I will shortly make proposals to government to address the issue of compliance regarding the television licence fee. I accept Senator Mooney's point on the efficiency of the existing collection system. We can do some work on the database that is used by An Post and I have some proposals to make in that regard. That may not necessarily be the end of the line, however, as we have to take further steps to ensure-----