Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the last 18 months to two years the Minister has indicated a willingness to make significant changes to the manner in which the licence fee is collected in an effort to address the considerable amount of money not collected as a result of evasion which in some quarters is estimated to be between €40 million and €50 million. That is a significant amount of money at a time when the national broadcaster is under significant strain in terms of its ability to meet its commitments and compete with the digital platforms. What has come to the fore in the last couple of days about the capacity of outside forces to use social media platforms to act in a nefarious way in democratic elections must surely bring home to the Minister and everyone else at the Cabinet table the necessity to support indigenous media.

In this instance our discussion concerns broadcasting only, so I will confine my remarks to that. I also have a view that we must support the wider media to act as a bulwark against the kind of nefarious activities that have been talked about in other jurisdictions. In that light, what movement, if any, have the Minister and the Department made to address the sum of approximately €40 million that is being lost to evasion? How quickly does the Minister hope to address the funding shortfall that arises in this way? Does he have any further thoughts about the use of the Revenue as an agency to collect the licence fee? Has he thought further about extending a flat broadcasting charge across the State as a method of supporting our indigenous broadcast media?