Mr. Mark Griffin:

These channels substitute Irish advertisements for their UK advertisements and their overheads are much lower as a result. There is a hit of €50 million in an overall advertising market that is worth between €200 million and €235 million. There was an increase of 30% in online advertising in 2015 and 2016 and revenues from online advertising in Ireland increased from €100 million to €445 million between 2010 and 2016, which reflects a huge change in the trend. If people are moving away from consuming linear broadcasting, is it credible to talk about a TV licence? People now access TV in very different ways. A number of years back we debated a broadcasting charge. Is this a space about which we need to start thinking again? The then Minister, Alex White, said he was not prepared to proceed with it until he had built a case and got the public to understand it. The work done by the joint committee and the roadshows held will help, but I hope the committee will now come forward with firm proposals.

There is also a big debate on retransmission fees. The Deputy may have read about the spat on this issue between ITV and Virgin Media in the United Kingdom. At the committee we discussed whether the broadcaster should be in a position to simply negotiate with the likes of Sky and Virgin Media. There is a potential revenue stream there, but there is major resistance from these companies. Nevertheless, we hope the committee will come forward with recommendations for us in this area in the coming weeks. I hope we can bring them back to the Oireachtas and the Government.