Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----so as to get away from the stuffy heads in Dublin 4 and all the rest of it at weekends. An Post has plagued us since then trying to get us to prove that we do not have a television in the house. It is curious that, if we have broadband in the house, we can look at the RTE player and not be liable for a licence fee, while, at the same time, if somebody has a normal mobile television in a caravan down the road from us, that person is liable for a licence of €160. There is something inconsistent in all of this.

The Minister's predecessor, Pat Rabbitte, came up with the idea of having a charge on every home. Logically, he was correct. I really do believe that he was logically correct. He got a bit of stick because he said that only people who live in caves do not have access to a television. He put his chin out for that and got clobbered. The reality is, however, that if it is the Government's policy to bring broadband to every house, it is absurd that somebody should be liable for €160 extra per year if he or she puts a particular piece of apparatus at the other end of that broadband rather than a computer. I know the Minister is a cute man and has not put his chin out where Deputy Rabbitte's chin was. He has asked this committee to come up with ideas as to how the matter should be dealt with. Let us be honest, the fairest thing to do would be to make the fee collectible as part of the local property tax.. That tax applies to every home in the country and the biggest and best homes pay more than the smallest, most modest homes. If a fraction of that income were to fund broadcasting, the fee would be collected most easily.

People forget that for many in this country to earn the €160 which must be paid for the privilege of having a television rather than watching programmes on-----