Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The best case scenario is that they are doing that and, if they are, it is a major waste of money. If they are not doing it, they are not enforcing the law. Either way, it is a farce to employ people to knock on doors. For a start, they cannot get into most apartment complexes. I am not prescribing the solution but asking the Minister to make a statement in this legislation that we will have a report and recommendations on this issue within 12 months. If the recommendation is that we stick with the current system, so be it. Then we can accept that what is good for Britain is good for Ireland in this area but I do not accept that we should not examine how we fund public service broadcasting in an Irish context. For a start, we will reduce the amount people must pay and will reduce the cost of implementing it. We should be able to reduce to €2 million the €12 million it costs currently to collect €200 million. One sees this when considering what it costs the Revenue to raise taxes. I hoped the legacy of this Minister would be one of reform because he is a reforming thinker in many ways, particularly in the energy area. This could be a positive reform that the Opposition would co-operate with so that we have a more efficient mechanism for funding public service broadcasting.

The Minister said that RTE expressed a view that it would like a continuation of the television licence fee for funding. The reason behind that is that the primary concern of RTE is to see assurances that a lump sum, separate to general taxation, is put into the public service broadcasting so that RTE does not suffer from reductions in the Exchequer. That is a valid concern and any system we set up would need to take this into account. We would need to ring-fence any levy or proposed taxation for public service broadcasting for that area to give guarantees that it would not be subject to the political whim of a Minister under pressure to make savings. That is a practical problem that can be resolved. That is the motivation behind the comments of RTE on this matter. It is not that RTE supports linking television ownership with a licence that contributes to the levy.

See this speech in context