Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree with Deputy Halligan's conclusion but I do not dispute anything he has said about the merit and value of the independent broadcasters. I entirely accept what he stated about the extraordinarily high listenership of his local radio station, WLR, which I accept provides a quality service in the region.

Of course, I did read their document and I met the board to discuss it. I repeat my own admiration for the quality of work that it does throughout the country. In the present difficult financial environment, I find myself being the subject of representations on behalf of the private sector, the independent sector and even the print sector. Clearly, Members of the House would accept that dispersing the licence fee across all of that would not make any sense. There are legal public service requirements imposed on the national broadcaster and it must deliver on that, and there is a certain irreducible minimum revenue that is necessary to do that.

My advice contests Deputy Halligan's contention and the contention by the IBI that state-aid rules would permit of State funding. My advice, for the reasons I stated in my reply, is that state-aid rules would not permit funding in the circumstances he describes.

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