Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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-----the long-term view of where public sector broadcasting should go. In the next day or two, I am due to receive a report from my officials on that report, and I want to compliment the committee on it.

In response to Deputy Eamon Ryan, I note that Deputy Dooley asked me the same question in the House a couple of weeks ago. We need to deal with this urgently. I agree with Deputy Eamon Ryan in that regard. That is why last May I got Government approval to bring forward the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2017. Hearings on the Bill started here on 11 July 2017, and the committee produced its report on it on 8 March 2018. I have only just received that report. My intention is to move as quickly as possible on this. Specifically, this Bill addresses the issue of evasion.

In answer to Deputy Bríd Smith's query about the impact on An Post, I note that An Post says that it is losing money on the enforcement of television licences. We have looked for expressions of interest with regard to this service. An Post is the collection agent at the moment, and the work is carried out through local post offices. We have no plans whatsoever to move collection away from the local post office. An Post is one of the organisations that is anxious to bid for this service if it goes through a tendering process. The intention behind this legislation is to enact it quickly and deal with some of the challenging problems that we have. Deputy Bríd Smith asked about the issue of retransmission. The report of this committee of 8 March asked me to prioritise measures to tackle evasion, which is what I intend to do. It also said that we need a detailed regulatory impact analysis of the issue of retransmission. We have just received that report, and I have directed officials to work on this immediately.

As I say, I am expecting to receive feedback on the broader report the committee has produced from my officials very shortly. I presume this will include Deputy Stanley's suggestion concerning registration at the point of purchase of a television set. Deputy Stanley is right in this regard. This is something I feel very strongly about. There have been numerous calls to increase the price of the television licence. We are effectively asking people to pay more to subsidise those who are refusing to pay. At the moment the public is actually subsidising the television licence because of the rates of evasion.

Those who pay a television licence effectively subsidise those who do not to the sum of €39 annually. About a quarter of the television licence fee is being used for that purpose. We need to increase funding to RTÉ but the way to do that is by ending evasion and closing off some of the loopholes and anomalies associated with the current licence. Since 2013, sales of the licence have increased, although not at the rate we would like. We want to encourage people to buy the licence.

Deputy Dooley is correct that combatting disinformation is the fundamental reason we need public service broadcasting. Any robust democracy has a well-functioning, publicly supported media. That is not only in relation to broadcasting but, as I said shortly after my appointment, it is something that we need to broaden out. We can see challenges across the board. We have very good quality journalism in this country, both from broadcasters and print media, and it is something I want to see supported. That is why the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill includes provision to support community and local radio stations, and also to support young journalists. I would like to see a situation eventually where we had the flexibility to go further than that.

Deputy Stanley asked about governance. The 2016 code of practice for the governance of State bodies issued in August 2016 applies to RTÉ. However, it did not come into force immediately. State bodies are expected to be in compliance with the code by the end of the first full financial year subsequent to the publication of the code, which was 31 December 2017, in both cases. The Department has been working with RTÉ to ensure full compliance with the code within the specified deadline. In line with the code's requirements, an oversight agreement has been signed by the Department and RTÉ. The oversight agreement does not include any additional obligations, rather it describes the roles, responsibilities and obligations of the Department and RTÉ as set out in the Broadcasting Act. RTÉ provides detailed financial analysis to the Department each month, including revenues, costs, deficits and surpluses, by channel, service and broadcasting genre and between public service and non-public service activities. The information is consolidated at the end of year and published in the RTÉ annual report.

On the key performance indicators for broadcasting, both public service broadcasters, namely, TG4 and RTÉ, prepare annual statements of performance commitments setting out how they intend to meet the targets in their respective strategy statements and how they will meet their statutory objectives as set out in the Broadcasting Act 2009. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland review these statements in the context of the annual reviews carried out under section 102 of the Act and the BAI then reports to me, as Minister, on the performance of each public sector broadcaster with regard to its statutory remit and commitments, and can make recommendations regarding funding required to enable the public service broadcasters to fulfil their obligations.