Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. I know that with the TV licence technical working group it was a different environment but we are now in the situation where significant numbers of people are not paying their TV licence fee. We are going to reach a tipping point where those of us who are paying are going to ask why we are continuing to pay it when so many are not paying it. I would respectfully suggest that when the Minister received that report in March, it was a very different environment to that in which we are operating now. I would even say, potentially, that report is redundant. When are we going to get the final decision? The Minister said it would be in the lifetime of this Government. There is a sticking plaster solution for RTÉ this year but when will we get the final decision about how we are going to fund public service broadcasting? That could be by means of some reformed licence or a device levy or my personal preferred option, which as the Minister knows is direct Exchequer funding provided through a body operating at arm's length.