James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the BAI's rebalancing and looking at the commercial and community aspects, which was mentioned at some stage earlier, there is CRAOL, an umbrella community radio group, and all the local radio stations, which are employed commercially as well. I am interested in the BAI's thoughts on the position if these were to come under its wing in the future. I am not sure whether they are at the moment. What responsibilities and obligations might be imposed on them and what kind of supports might they be expected to receive?

My next question concerns a figure in the BAI's opening statement about compliance and evasion. It is stated that the level of evasion from the TV licence is 13.75%. That does not seem that bad a level of evasion. The corollary of that is that we have a compliance percentage in the high 80s. I am interested to know whether that is vertical or horizontal. My understanding is that if there are multiple devices in a house, each theoretically must be registered under the new licence fee. A person may have multiple addresses. We had a conversation recently about mobile homes and holiday homes. If someone has a TV in a mobile home in Wexford for a few weeks of the year, he or she is expected to have a licence for it separate to the licence for the device in his or her homestead. It is also my understanding that if there is a second TV in a bedroom upstairs, a separate licence must pertain to that. Regarding the evasion fee, is it the case that every household must have a minimum of one licence, so is it a horizontal stretch and 13.75% of households do not have any licence, or is it the case that 13.75% of all the licences that should be paid have not been chased up? I am not sure that is clear. I will clarify that if necessary.

I will raise a general point. Deputy Stanley raised political broadcasting. No one party has a monopoly on complaints. The party I represent is not always best pleased by coverage either. The coverage is a mapping back to a function of representation in the Oireachtas, and it was not always a fair representation in terms of the coverage received.

I am not sure whether it has improved in the new Dáil. It is probably too early to tell, although the broadcasting sector and RTE in particular are struggling with the minority Government arrangement. A recent "Prime Time" debate fundamentally misunderstood the nature of our minority Government and, therefore, perhaps it is time RTE got up to speed with the reality around most of Europe and most western democracies. It might be something for the BAI to keep an eye on as well.