Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The report of the Oireachtas committee is under consideration, but the Deputy must bear in mind that taxpayers' money is the peoples' money. The report recommends a different way to collect the television licence fee which would require people who do not have a television to pay a television licence fee. We must bear in mind that when we talk about public funding, we are talking about taxpayers' money. We have to consider whether people want to spend more money in funding media organisations or whether they would prefer the money to be spent on other things like education, health care or disability services.

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