Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the same issue, the biggest concern my party has is that people are moving away from television sets and on to mobile phones and iPads. While they are not following a particular schedule, they are consuming data that is created at a cost by the national broadcaster. It is about how, as we move to the future, we have a robust system that protects the idea of public sector broadcasting. We can jockey around about who pays what and where. I have no issue there, and I take it that there are people who would see the particular line the Minister is taking as unfair. Of course, there are systems to protect those, but the fundamental thing we need to protect is a national broadcaster and the idea of public sector broadcasting. While we are fooling around in this space, I have a concern that we are eroding confidence in our national broadcaster and, through the loss of key personnel and staff, its capacity to continue to develop a thriving public sector broadcasting system. That is happening in the face of the challenges of social media and content aggregated, provided and sourced well outside the State and from an entirely different culture. While that is good and appropriate, we need a robust system if we are to protect what we have and allow it to develop and compete adequately. How much does the Minister consider he can gain from within that 14% who are not paying at the minute and taking into account what Senator McDowell has said, which is that some of the properties involved are only inhabited for short periods? What is the Minister's target?

The question of compliance is important because if there is no compliance, one must increase fees for those who are paying. It is very important that there is compliance. Perhaps the system needs to be changed to deal with a household with a licence that may have a mobile home or an apartment. The current licence is tied to the address and we need to look carefully at how we manage that. It is very important that we do not have a fee increase for those people who are paying because a significant number of people are not paying. I recognise that it would be practically impossible to get 100% compliance for various reasons, particularly in gated developments, but we are talking about a different situation with a household that does not have a licence. Perhaps the Department would look at that and see whether there is a mechanism that can be put in place where people who have a mobile home or apartment and who might be using a television for a fortnight or three weeks every year do not have to buy a licence to cover that period. One way around it is to stipulate that if the household can show it has a valid licence tied to an address and that it is its permanent residence, it sorts the matter out. We need compliance. I do not want to get into an argument with Senator McDowell about this but it is important that those people who are paying are not carrying a significant percentage who are not paying. Bills have been already mentioned. In Portlaoise, where I live, people are paying €80 a month for cable so along with paying the fee, they are paying this as well - €80 multiplied by 12. Those people are caught because if they have cable, they must have a licence. Those people are paying for everything.