Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

One could take the position that it is miserly and that we should have given the full CPI inflationary figure, which would have been closer to a sum in excess of €7 rather than €2 but we must also take into account a number of different factors. First, the actual revenue from the licence fee will increase due to the increased number of households that exist. It does not just relate to the level of licence fee but the number of houses. While I take the Deputy's second point that there are inefficiencies or difficulties in the licence fee collection system, it is becoming more efficient and accurate in the amounts being raised and therefore the cost is reducing. One must recognise also the general financial position in RTE, which is strong currently and something I welcome. It comes on the back of strong commercial revenues as well. It is a balancing act that is further complicated in that the way RTE is meeting its performance targets must be assessed. The agreement with RTE a number of years ago for a significant increase in the licence fee, followed by a period of five years where each year an independent review would be done to determine whether it was meeting its obligations, is the process I was engaged in. RTE has met its obligations but what I determined in this process was that those obligations were reasonably broad and largely based around programme hours in any particular programme category area.

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