Mr. Mark Griffin:

I am glad that the Deputy raised that issue, as I unequivocally share his concerns. There has been a reduction in the TV licence fee income and commercial revenues in the past few years. Since 2008 RTÉ is down €85 million in commercial revenues. This is having a real and direct effect. If one looks at the capacity of RTÉ to invest in independent productions, in 2007, when the economy was its peak, it was spending €79 million in that sector. In 2016 it spent €40 million. The inability to invest in the sector is costing jobs across the State. In fact, it is affecting the quality of what viewers see on RTÉ, the ability of the company to produce high quality output and media content. In the Department we have a real concern about the future funding of the company. If I was to be brutally honest, I would say the TV licence fee model was broken and I am not sure whether it can be fixed. The level of evasion is 14.6% and we are losing €40 million per annum. That affects not only RTÉ but also the broadcasting fund, from which good works, both audio and audio-visual, are commissioned. There has been a major reduction in the capacity of the fund to deliver such programmes.

The Minister has asked the Oireachtas joint committee to look at the funding of public sector broadcasting and it has done a body of work in the past few months. We expect to see its report in the next few weeks. The Minister will bring it to the Government with proposals as to how the issue can be dealt it. We need to take a serious look at how we approach the funding of public sector broadcasting.