Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2017 and Retransmission Fees: Discussion

5:00 pm

Ms Aisling McCabe:

It has to be both.

Reference was made to double taxation. People are paying a licence fee as a contribution towards public service media. RTE is a dual-funded organisation. We have obligations to secure commercial revenue. I will go back to the earlier point. These platforms are getting money on the basis of not paying any intellectual property for Irish content. We have seen 83% of RTE revenue going to investment in Irish content and we want to put more into that. That is the point – it is not double taxation.