Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My colleague Senator Warfield spoke about the funding model and he threw around certain accusations against the Government. That is fair enough. That is the politics of it. The model I have long-believed is the way forward is a household charge. I shared that in a paper we devised a number of years ago and that it should be collected by Revenue. I have a concern at the notion of it coming from central funding because, regardless of the independent model - I think Deputy Gould referred to certain exceptional circumstances. While Senator Warfield is not here, it will be on the record and he will have an opportunity to talk to me about it again. My concern is that if RTÉ was dependent on Deputy Doherty as Minister for Finance providing funding on a multi-annual basis at the same time as his leader, Deputy McDonald, is suing RTÉ, I believe that would put a chilling effect on everyone in RTÉ. I do not expect Mr. Bakhurst to comment. That would put a chilling effect on every member of staff in RTÉ if that was the model. I have always believed in the independent structure. As a society, if we value public service broadcasting, we must pay for it and be seen to pay for it. There has been an effort to conflate the failure of water charges with the continuation of the licence fee. That is a spurious argument, quite frankly. People have been paying a licence fee forever. The issue with water charges was entirely separate - they had not. People did not know what the sum of money would be required every year because there was no history of it. They did not know what their annual payment might be. It is clear in the licence fee. The notion that somehow you would give a sort of blanket amnesty is actually aimed at undermining the continued payment of the licence fee. That may suit a certain political agenda to bring control into the political realm and, thereby, have the capacity to control RTÉ. That is the last thing anyone involved in any element of politics should want because RTÉ's capacity to hold authority to account has stood this democracy well. The model going forward has to give due recognition to that.