Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There has been much discussion about new politics and whether this Dáil is working. This report is interesting in that regard because it shows that new politics can work. Parties can come together and do detailed analysis and, as Deputy Lawless said, do some really innovative stakeholder consultation and consider very complex issues. What has been done in the past year - I wish it had been done more quickly - is a credit to Dáil Éireann and the Oireachtas staff, including the research capabilities of the Oireachtas Library and Research service.

There are different views. We have just heard Deputy Stanley. He and I probably have diametrically opposed views but the Oireachtas committee came to clear conclusions both on a report on future funding of broadcasting and later on transmission. We could not have been clearer, more succinct, more specific or more practical and positive in what we were presenting. What we have seen here is a complete failure of Government to do the same, to show any sort of leadership or urgency towards one of the critical issues of our time.

I listened to the Minister's response with real intent. It was fortunate that this debate was drawn in the lottery because there was no chance that it would have come up for debate otherwise. It is a very important debate. The select committee met last week when we went through the Estimates and went into some of the similar arguments with the Minister. I was hoping that the Minister might have listened to some of those arguments and used the opportunity to come here today and deliver a speech that would be far more specific, positive, proactive and real. The Minister has said that as part of the Estimates process, he will talk to the Cabinet to see if we can get back some of that social welfare funding. That is welcome but it is not the scale of response we need. The Minister has been speaking for some time about a bursary scheme for trainees. That may have some potential benefit but that is not the scale of the response we want.

The licence fee collection system is fundamentally broken and needs to change. It does not need some new tendering operation. The Minister should take the recommendation of the committee and go to the Revenue Commissioners with some urgency to see how to decrease that level of evasion which, as the Minister pointed out, is deeply unfair. Those who pay subsidise those who do not. We have suggested it be done through the Revenue Commissioners but, if it is not through them, the Minister needs to find another quick action to deliver the funding.

The retransmission issue is complex. We looked at it in real depth. To my mind, the last thing we need is further analysis, study and yet more "Yes Minister" discussions with stakeholders and so on. A decision needs to made. For a year and a half the committee has said clearly that we should give RTÉ the right to negotiate. What is stopping us from doing that at this stage? If there are legal concerns, they will come out in the legislative process but I do not think there are.

One can take a line from a 100-page report like ours which says there should be further analysis. Officials will always say that there should be further analysis, but sometimes in politics the time comes for a decision to be made and that time is now. RTÉ has published a new strategic report. I am not here to sing on behalf of RTÉ, but one line in the report is fair and honest. By and large, it is a reasonably good strategy. We are not here to debate it, but one line is important. It states that RTÉ is a company that is losing money. The whole sector, not just RTÉ but also local radio stations and the print media, is in deep financial trouble. Unlike Deputy Stanley, I would like us to support the print media in some way.

There is a recognition that in order for this to mean anything, the sector has to start to have proper funding by the first quarter of 2019. The budget process, as we all know, starts now. We will have to do a lot of work to get it over the line by the summer, which is when the real crunch decisions are made, in order to have funding in place for budget 2019. Some of the revenues will take time and are uncertain. We do not know how much we will get from retransmission fees negotiations, but we should aim for a pot of between €50 million and €70 million. That should not go to RTÉ alone, it should also be a significant fillip to local radio stations and other media organisations across the State.

We should be ambitious and aim to raise an extra €60 million or €70 million in 2019. The tentative "Yes Minister" type of analysis, putting things out to tender for consideration and not adopting the fundamental reforms we need will not work. There will be a household charge. I fundamentally disagree with Deputy Stanley because the TV licence is no longer a key source of funding. One cannot measure the use of media based on whether someone has a television. The system needs to change. We could have changed this five years ago, but it is time to change it now. We need to get rid of evasion. Unless the tendering process can be quick and provide a cast-iron guarantee that we would get the sort of compliance that would occur if the Revenue Commissioners did the work, we will fail in our obligations.

As I said, this is important. Why do we want that money? There is always a tension between politicians and the media. It is a weird symbiotic relationship. There is a recognition from those on the committee that telling the story of where we are and putting a mirror to ourselves to reflect where we are is important in this country at this moment. Having a fair, honest and keen assessment of what is happening in Irish democracy and politics is important.

As I said, creative content industries are on their feet because the truth is that all of the money is going to Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and other international companies. This is not a small issue. How content creators are paid in a digital revolution is not a marginal or sideline issue; rather, it is of central importance in terms of where we are in the digital revolution. We should be willing to support content creators and that is why we need €60 million or €70 million to pay film-makers, dramatists, people involved in production, storytellers and musicians. At a time when Google and Facebook are not paying them, someone has to and it is our job as politicians to stand up to that responsibility even if it is difficult politically or there are different views on how that should be done. We have to do something. It is not good enough to just tread water for another year or two when the industry is in real crisis, when there is a new strategy in RTÉ and when all sorts of changes are taking place.

Representatives from The Anglo-Celtand another media group came before the committee.

They described how they just cannot get the digital revenues. We went into detail looking at the Independent News and Media takeover proposals, and it was interesting that those media said they just cannot make it in the digital market, they are not getting the revenues and they do not have the power of the other platforms. We must therefore step in and provide some kind of revenue to ensure that Irish media survive and thrive, as I believe they can and will if we give them a stable funding platform. That is the scale of the importance of this - and it concerns all media. We are moving away from television and radio. That is what I like in the RTÉ strategy: it will be one channel but will still maintain the traditional channels as real parts of the whole. We also have a chance here to support and present media which is Irish-focused, which does not chase ratings and which is not just about trying to excite listenership or viewer figures. Therefore, we should put it into the BAI fund and expand what that fund is able to invest in. While we should not get directly involved in any way, through regulation we should argue that sometimes at prime time, one should put on something that is perhaps of marginal interest but is important in terms of how we tell that story about ourselves to ourselves. However, one cannot do this without money. One cannot run two proper orchestras without money. One cannot have a news service that reports what we say here and reflects the debate we have without it being properly funded, which it is not at present. That needs to change, and the Minister has one chance in this budget cycle to do it. If he does not do it, it will be a black mark.

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