Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On broadcasting generally, in recent years we have met representatives from the independent and public broadcasting sectors. We have heard different views on funding models. There was a proposal on the initiation of a broadcasting charge, which has been in gestation for some time. Very early in his tenure, the Minister made a couple of profound statements, for want of a better word, where he ruled out the introduction of any broadcasting charge. Obviously, that is a policy decision he has taken but it does not get away from the fact that both the commercial and public sectors have funding issues. When the independent broadcasters come before us, they talk about the public service dimension to their work: the provision of local and regional news, and of information on sporting events. By its nature, that is expensive to provide and is not covered by the commercial support they receive from advertising. That is for the smaller independent entities. In the event of a broadcasting charge and the additional revenues that would flow from it if there was full collection, they hoped that there would have been the potential for them to gain support from it. I would have been a strong supporter of that. Likewise, I have read reports from the BAI, representatives of which came before us in the past and clearly made the point that RTE would need additional funding to meet its obligations. We have had arguments here in the past that I thought were superfluous about thinking we could resolve that issue by paying less to certain stars. I have always tried to avoid that kind of debate but it often gets popular vent in other media outlets. The fact is there are funding shortfalls in both the public and private sides that need to be addressed. There is an inability to collect some €30 million from the licence fee. There seems to be even a reduction in that because of people moving away from using televisions, as opposed to those who have televisions but are not paying the fee, with the advent of just-in-time delivery of the TV that you want. We are all using iPads now in addition to televisions. How does one square the circle to ensure the sector is adequately funded?