Michael McDowell (Independent)
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-----the computer, they would have to earn €320 gross. That is what they must get in their wage packet to bring €160 home. It is a huge burden on many families. As Deputy Stanley said, the cost is not equitably distributed among the people of Ireland when one thinks about it. If the most modest household, struggling with the greatest adversity, has to come up with €160 and the wealthiest family with the greatest income, living in great opulence, has to come up with the same amount, it is not a very fair distribution of the cost of broadcasting.

One of the problems that would arise if the Minister did what I am suggesting and shaved off a part of whatever local property tax is paid is that the money would go to the Revenue Commissioners because it is they who collect that tax. It would not go to An Post and the €12 million subsidy given to An Post in collection fees would be withdrawn, which would add to its financial difficulties. Unfortunately, that is not a good reason for leaving things as they stand. In the short term, the Minister might not want to come up with another €12 million for An Post, one way or another, in order to make it viable, but paying it to collect this licence fee is very inefficient. There are advertisements on the radio about what one can do with the €1,000 - dental work and the like - fine charge for non-payment of the licence fee. The whole idea of constantly campaigning to get people to pay the licence fee, having little pieces of paper coming into every home saying that the inspector is in the neighbourhood and so on, is baloney. There is a simple way out of this. Having said all of that, it would be collected much more cheaply and much more easily if that were done. Even an empty home would be liable for the broadcasting charge if it was collected in that way. The Minister has to grasp that nettle.

On the other end of the process, I notice that €190 million out of this fund is projected to go to RTE every year. I fully respect the needs of public service broadcasting and I take on board what other people have said about the need for authentic, reliable media. I will not repeat their comments. The Constitution itself refers to the press and radio, as it was then, as the educators of public opinion, so I have no problem with any government having a strongly pro-Irish media policy and supporting a quality medium, especially in this era of fake news. I do, however, agree with Deputy Stanley. I do not believe that there is anyone in Montrose who, if told that there was an upper limit on salary of €250,000 or €200,000, would go elsewhere. I do not believe anywhere else in Ireland would offer them more money. Some people would say that this is rich coming from a barrister, but I not believe there is a market for their services at all. I know that if a barrister who was useless said that he or she wanted X or Y, he or she would be told to take a hike.