Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is fair enough and I thank Ms Doherty. I have some points on children's television. People were talking about this and it stirred some memories, and I can still remember watching Zig and Zag at lunchtime in the canteen at college. I have three young kids but when they turn on television they do not switch to RTÉ, to be quite honest. During Covid-19, however, there was a project linking in schools and doing some programmes on television at a certain time. It is an area that could be looked at, perhaps with languages like Irish etc. Perhaps it could be tied in with the Department of Education so that kids at home full-time or at the weekend could be doing some educational work by watching certain programmes on RTÉ approved by the Department.

I take the point that RTÉ is not yet seeking an increase in the licence fee and the witnesses are 100% right that a significant amount of money is out there. My party, Fine Gael, in a proposal for The Future of Media Commission indicated there could be a public service media charge on all households that could generate a figure of more than €65 million. Such a fund, if it comes about, should be available to all media, including written media, regional newspapers and radio stations. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, funding is approximately 7%, although I could be wrong.

Perhaps I am misreading what was said in that this should be moved away from An Post. The witnesses may not want to say it but that should not happen. The witnesses mentioned that we must amend the Broadcasting Act and that is the first action to be taken. We should not remove An Post as the collection agent. The difficulty that An Post as a collection agent has arises from the anomaly in the Broadcasting Act and that should be dealt with first. We do not want a position where the licence fee is collected by the Revenue Commissioners. It is not something I am in favour of and we must amend the Act and let An Post collect the fee. A significant amount would be collected. What are the views of the witnesses on that?