Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Going back to the future of RTÉ and the future of public service broadcasting, yesterday Sinn Féin tabled a Private Members' motion on which we will vote tonight. We want to see sustainable public sector broadcasting for RTÉ and TG4, and right across the board, be it Virgin Media, local radio stations, Dublin stations or community stations. We want to encourage and see good public content, with honest and trustworthy programmes being developed. What we see at the moment is that the current situation is broken. The Taoiseach has said it. The Minister has said it. It is outdated and is not suitable for 2024. We have a report from the Future of Media Commission, one of the recommendations of which is that from 2024 we should look at direct funding from the Exchequer. This is what we would like to see. Mr. Bakhurst made the point earlier about tying to operate from year to year. Our proposal would see multiannual funding for four years. It would be set by Coimisiún na Meán and be an independent triple lock system where it would meet with all the people involved, gauge it and recommend funding. That funding would be passed for four years, and if a Minister decided to change that, the Minister would have come before the Dáil and explain. There are exceptional circumstances, for example, like the financial crisis and the Troika, where that might be necessary. Outside of that, this model of funding would guarantee independence of the media, guarantee the funding and allow RTÉ to plan for the future.

Perhaps Mr. Bakhurst will correct me if I am wrong, but looking at the figures for the past five years, 200,000 fewer people are paying the licence fee now than in 2018. Is that correct?