Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The public, and particularly those people who are paying the television licence fee, and, as I said, especially households that are stretched to pay it because they are on low incomes, would be surprised to hear that more than one in seven households do not have a television set. Ms O'Shea stated that this is a recognised measurement, but the public would have a job accepting it. I certainly question that figure. I accept that more people are viewing programmes online. Generally, however, households viewing programmes online also have televisions. The game here must be to try to improve the collection rates without increasing the licence fee. We must spread the load to be fairer to the households I mentioned. That is important. I reiterate that I seriously question that figure for non-television households. RTÉ and the Department - and we have people here from the Department with us - should look again at where this figure is coming from. There may be a dual system in operation, where people are viewing programmes online but also have television sets. We do not want to penalise anybody, but we must be fair to those low- and middle-income households.