Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In the middle of all the palaver we witnessed today in the resignation of the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the communications committee was told that it had to rush through a report on the future funding of public broadcasting. The way it was done was shameful. It was a draft report, on which a full discussion had yet to take place, but we rushed it through. The key and, for most people, the most significant mechanism contained in the report is giving the Revenue Commissioners the duty to collect the television licence fee.

I do not know what planet most Members of the Dáil are living on, but if they tell people who are hurting the most in trying to pay taxation, be it the property tax or stealth taxes such as bin charges, that the tax man is to take the television licence fee from their salary or social welfare payment, they will really punish them. I hope this will come back to bite them many times in the bum when the next election takes place.

With regard to the recommendation that the Revenue Commissioners collect the television licence fee, it was originally included in the document as a household charge, but the committee copped on and realised how sensitive that would be. The fee is €160 per home, regardless of what device is used to look at the broadcasting media, be it an iPhone, an iPad, a laptop, a computer or a television. The only exemptions are for old age pensioners who are granted the exemption when they are over 70 years of age and other social welfare recipients.

An Post lost €15.6 million in revenue last year and PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, forecasts that it will lose €61 million in 2017. It astounded me to hear rural Deputies passionately supporting this measure, knowing that taking the responsibility for collection of the television licence fee from the An Post network and moving it to the Revenue Commissioners would hurt more of the post office network throughout the country which has already been hit disgracefully, with post offices shutting down left, right and centre. Whether one's post office is located in Cleggan or Rialto, this is a big blow to the network. The only reason it is being done is that, according to the most recent records for the numbers of people sent to prison, more than 400 people, three quarters of whom were women, many of whom were lone parents, were sent to jail in 2014 for not paying their television licence fee and the ensuing fine. When people could not be forced to pay it in that manner, it was decided to use the big stick of the Revenue Commissioners. It is using a big stick to crack open a nut.

Consider what is being streamed into Ireland through Sky or Virgin Media. Their profits are going through the roof. Virgin Media's profits surged by 38% last year, while Sky's profits were up by 12% to €1.2 billion in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Why is somebody not going after them for special taxation on the question of broadcasting? They have lobbied that committee so many times we are now seeking legal advice as to whether RTÉ should be given the right to negotiate re-transmission fees from these global corporations. It is outrageous and disgraceful. What is more outrageous is that within that context, this was being pushed through this morning when the whole country was engaged in what was happening with the Tánaiste without any decent recognition of the impact this will have on ordinary people and the taste that will be left in the mouth and without due regard to how the Government will force the collection through Revenue of €160 from people who can barely afford to cover the stuff the Government is already taking from them.

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