Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The big issue in broadcasting is the €40 million not being collected in licence fees. The committee spent a long time putting a report together. I would have differed in terms of what was recommended at the end of it, which was basically that the State would use Revenue to collect it. I put forward a proposal on behalf of my party that there would be registration, both at purchase and at the point of connection to a service, that would bring everybody onto a database. If one were on the database and did not have a licence, one would automatically receive a fine bar one could give a valid explanation as to why, for instance, if one had got rid of a television altogether. Otherwise, viewers would be caught within that net.

It is frustrating that we are here again and the licence fee receipts are still €40 million down. What action is being taken? We came together and did a lot of work on that report.

Members of the committee made a significant contribution to it. It is an issue the Minister has discussed with myself and other Deputies in the House. We do not want to see the licence fee increased but surely we must get in most of the €40 million to deal with the issues in RTÉ.

My second question relates to the €190,724,000. Given what is going on, is that a realistic target to bring in? That is a huge sum and I wonder if it is realistic.