Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 129:

In page 142, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following:

"140.—(1) The Authority shall prepare a report which shall be completed and laid before the Minister and Joint Oireachtas Committee within 12 months, on the most appropriate and efficient method of public funding for public service broadcasting.

The report shall consider the following:

(a) the funding of public service broadcasting outside Ireland, in particular in other EU states,

(b) the appropriateness of linking funding of public service broadcasting with television ownership and television licence fee system,

(c) evasion of payment of television licence fee and the cost of enforcement and collection of penalties or other fees,

(d) modern advances in technology and new ways of accessing programmes and production financed by funds collected to support public service broadcasting,

(e) the effect of technological and media developments on the capacity to define "television set" for the purpose of television licence fee system,

(f) the need to ensure a long term, stable and consistent source of public funding to support public service broadcasting that will enable multiannual budgeting for broadcasters,

(g) an efficient and fair collection mechanism of funds that will minimise evasion.

(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall affect the existing mechanisms of television licence fees during the preparation of the report under subsection (1).".

All these amendments are mine and I tabled them because I wish to fundamentally change Part 9 of the Bill. I do not believe the existing funding mechanism for funding public service broadcasting is appropriate any longer. Essentially, my proposal is to leave the existing system in place for the present and included a provision to that effect at the end of the amendment No. 129. However, the authority should be required to prepare a report "which shall be completed and laid before the Minister and Joint Oireachtas Committee within 12 months, on the most appropriate and efficient method of public funding for public service broadcasting". The amendment then lays out the criteria for so doing.

On a series of levels, it is inappropriate, bad value for money, ineffective and outdated to fund public service broadcasting to the tune of more than €200 million each year by attaching an obligation to have a licence for every television in the country. We have an army of people knocking on doors, checking under beds for televisions and asking people whether they have licences. In this Bill, the Minister is attempting to introduce a new fines mechanism so that people do not have to be sent to prison. In the last two years, approximately 50 people have gone to prison because they do not have television licences. It costs the State a great deal of money to go through the courts system to put people in prison and hold them there. It is madness. It costs €12 million a year to collect €200 million, which is totally inefficient.

It is becoming more and more difficult to define what a television is. The Minister has claimed that under this legislation, laptops, computer screens and personal digital assistants do not constitute televisions. If somebody is watching television via a computer screen, he or she will not need a television licence. If somebody is watching television via a plasma screen, he or she will need a licence. On Committee Stage, I asked the Minister how he would describe the plasma screens that are used in the Oireachtas committee rooms. They are used as presentation screens, by and large, rather than as televisions. What are they? Are they computer screens or televisions? This is becoming a nonsensical argument. Surely we can put in place a new method of collecting €200 million from 4 million people to fund public service broadcasting in Ireland. The reality is that approximately 20% of the people do not pay the licence fee at all. The other 80% of the people have to pay for them. We are spending a great deal of money to chase after people to determine whether they own a television. The system is so inefficient that it almost encourages evasion. When those who have not bought television licences are caught, they have to pay a small fine that is considerably less than the cost of the licence fee. Where is the incentive to get a licence? When one buys a new television, one is almost incentivised not to pay the licence fee because one can be pretty sure that one will not be caught for a couple of years, at least. One is better off to wait until one is caught, to pay the fine, which is approximately one third of the licence fee, and to buy the licence at that stage.

For a series of reasons, we need to modernise the manner in which we raise revenues for public service broadcasting. We should consider the introduction of a household levy, in addition to a business levy that applies to pubs, hotels, restaurants and bed and breakfasts. That would allow us to collect the funds that are needed in an efficient manner. I do not mind whether An Post or the Revenue Commissioners are responsible for the system, as long as there is a proper tendering process. As I understand it, the Minister's only justification for continuing to fund public service broadcasting through the inefficient television licence fee process is that no other European country has a better way of doing it. Why can Ireland not make the first move in this regard? I do not understand why we are not taking this issue more seriously. The current inefficient system, which is costing us money, is plagued by evasion. All of these problems will intensify in the years to some, as it becomes more and more difficult to define what a television is. I ask the Minister to consider these amendments, in which I propose that we should retain the current inefficient system while putting in place a braver and more effective system that ensures everybody pays. While I do not expect he will accept this proposal, I cannot be expected to roll with the punches and to accept the indefinite continuation of the kind of inefficient and outdated system we have at the moment.

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