Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I respectfully disagree with the Deputy on that point. There remains a strong case to have a robust form of funding for public service broadcasting, by which I mean, principally, the public service broadcasters. That has been the policy of every Government going back not just to the 1960s, when television was set up, but right through the period when independent radio and television was established in the late 1980s. In the years following the 1989 Act, commercial radio and television came on board and it was seldom, if ever, advocated that we should stand down or in some way change the basic proposition that public service broadcasters should be funded through a licence fee, as it is in our case. I am not putting words in the Deputy's mouth. In future, there might be a different animal in the form of a broadcast charge. That will not happen soon but it could happen if there is public acceptance of it. It is happening in other countries. I will be honest with the Deputy and the committee. I do not agree that we should stand down or reduce the funding available for public service broadcasting. My view, as Minister, is that it would be a mistake.