Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 20 January 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting

9:30 am

Ms Dee Forbes:

Yes, and my recollection is that money went to the radio sector. I thank the Deputy for his comments regarding "Home School Hub" and the other content. We created all that content within the existing budget. Any additional content that was produced came from within that budget. We had no additional funding per seto cover any Covid-19 issues.

Turning to the licence fee and the whole process there, as I have outlined and as was outlined by the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment in 2017, is that the current system is not fit for purpose. As the Deputy is probably aware, the collection of the licence fee is done by An Post. There is an agreement between the Department and An Post in that regard.

The Department can comment on measures being taken to amend or change any of that. The Future of Media Commission was established to try to come up with a future-proofing method of collection, recognising what has been said in the past about the current system not being fit for purpose. That is my comment on that.

What was the third part of the Deputy's question?

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