Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the presentation from the panel. The ability of the Government to introduce a broadcasting fee has been covered. Another factor must be considered, namely, that many low and middle-income households already face a significant burden in terms of increased charges, including insurance costs and so on. The working poor would find it difficult to carry an increase in the licence fee, never mind whether it would be justified.

I am interested in hearing the views of the panel on what means and method of collecting the just under €40 million that is lost through evasion of the licence fee should be used. The money collected from the licence fee should go to commercial broadcasters.

I want the panel to address the question of content and the level and quality of coverage. There may be an accepted view that public sector broadcasters such as RTE have better and more balanced coverage than commercial operators. That is not my experience. A study of the 2016 election coverage was carried out by Mr. Padraig O'Mara. I would be interested in hearing the views of the panel on his findings.

There has been a deafening silence about the report. I have not heard it being challenged, supported or anything else. I am not in a position to question how accurate the study is; I have not had time to carry out an in-depth analysis of media coverage, but the report is available and I have not heard anybody shouting him down or saying that what he has found is rubbish. In the case of RTE, the study found the overall coverage that the party I represent, Sinn Féin, received was about two-thirds of what the Labour at a party received and less than half of what Fine Gael received. The Labour Party received more coverage than Fianna Fáil in terms of overall coverage. On a further analysis-----