Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to hear that response and that the Minister of State is a fan of Lyric FM. He should keep an eye on this matter. It was mentioned on a "Prime Time" programme about the financial difficulties in RTÉ. As I said, it would be completely unacceptable for this to happen. Lyric FM is a Limerick-based station. It has a good relationship with the department of music, arts and culture in the University of Limerick and employs people in the city. The station has a major cultural impact across the country.

There are questions about the funding of public service broadcasting. We should be looking at imposing some taxes on the profits of companies such as Netflix, Now TV and Sky which are making a hell of a lot of money here. Why not tax their profits to invest in public service broadcasting and cultural output generally? It is worth noting that our levels of investment in arts and culture is pathetically low by European standards. Cutting Lyric FM would be unacceptable. The Minister of State must keep a close eye on this in case Lyric FM becomes a victim of these circumstances when we need more cultural output and not less.

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