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

There is certainly a difficulty in this regard. There is no doubt about it. We will examine whether it can be surmounted. I do not dispute what the Deputy has said about the value of the output of these regional stations, which undoubtedly carry public service content. This is not the only sector from which I get representations looking for a share of the licence fee.

There are others out there, from which one can draw the inference that spreading the butter so thinly would certainly have an impact on the national public service broadcaster, on which there are statutory impositions in respect of discharging its public service function. That would have to be taken into account as well.

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