Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Freedom of the media is essential in a democracy and people are free to choose whatever medium they want to get their information from. In most villages of Ireland, people can get newspapers from whatever country they want to in these islands and they can certainly get television channels from wherever they want. People are concerned about rising prices but if newspaper prices go up, they can stop buying them and if a Sky or Virgin subscription goes up, they can stop paying it. What they cannot do is lawfully stop paying the television licence. It is paid in return for public service broadcasting and it raises €200 million per year, all of which goes to RTÉ. TG4, which most people think provides public service broadcasting, is funded directly from the Exchequer. Given people are concerned about rising prices, will the Tánaiste commit that the licence fee will not be going up for the remainder of this Government?

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