Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to be careful about what I say in respect of RTÉ because I have a brother working there at a senior level. I do not want to be accused of having any vested interests or anything like that. Decisions were made on RTÉ that I think were sensible. RTÉ has funding pressures. The budgetary announcement will help somewhat in that but RTÉ also has responsibilities to provide a significant volume of programming in a cost-effective way. However, we will continue to have a discussion with RTÉ, and indeed with other parties in this House, in respect of how we fund public service broadcasting. That discussion needs to continue but it is not true that this was the only measure in the budget for Irish media. We decided to retain the VAT rate of 9% for the newspaper industry, despite changing that rate for many other sectors. Irish media did get preferential treatment for the reasons the Deputy Eamon outlined.

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