Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle agus guím beannachtaí na Féile Bríde uirthi agus ar phobal mór na hÉireann.

Inniu arís, chonaiceamar an cultúr a bhí ann in RTÉ faoin iar-ard-stiúrthóir RTÉ agus faoi na rialtais i ndiaidh a cheile. Tá muinín caillte ag an bpobal in RTÉ. Tá sé soiléir gurb é an t-am anois deireadh a chur leis an gceadúnas teilifíse, athchóiriu a dhéanamh ar RTÉ agus é a chur ar bhonn maoiniú inbhuanaithe.

Yesterday, we were all given another glimpse, if we needed another one, of the culture that prevailed at RTÉ under the former director general and successive Governments. The report by McCann Fitzgerald found ten redundancies under the 2017 voluntary exit programme did not satisfy the requirements of a redundancy within the meaning of the Redundancy Payment Acts and that, as a result, it may be the case RTÉ should not have applied a tax exemption on the €223,000 it made in exit payments to ten individuals. We also learned the exit package of RTÉ's former chief financial officer was not approved by its executive board. I have called on the Revenue Commissioners to investigate these revelations in full.

Only last week the latest report on the fiasco around Toy Show The Musical, which was also not approved by the executive board, was published. These are damning findings and the public is sick to the teeth of all of this. It is little wonder payments of the TV licence have fallen off a cliff. It is vital the public trusts RTÉ but trust takes time to build and needs to be earned. People are sick of the squandering of public money and lack of accountability with no one held to account. It seems the only people being held to account are the 60 people being brought before the courts every day for non-payment of the TV licence. What a contrast: one rule for RTÉ executives and another for taxpayers.

Public sector broadcasting is essential and needs to be funded properly. It needs to be independent, rigorous and trusted. That is why the current situation is untenable. A bad situation is being allowed to deteriorate. The Government needs to stop dithering and needs to act. It has had a report on its desk since 2021 - three years now - with recommendations to abolish the licence fee and to replace that revenue with Exchequer finance. I want the Government to act on that recommendation. Government bickering and indecision is making a bad decision worse. The public wants decisive action on this and wants it now.

Sinn Féin would abolish the TV licence and fund RTÉ and other public service media through Exchequer funding. This is what was recommended by the report of the expert group on the Future of Media Commission, sent to the Government in July 2021. Such an approach would end the farcical and often cruel pursuit of hard-pressed individuals through the courts for non-payment, sometimes resulting in their imprisonment for a couple of hours. Removal of the licence fee and its replacement with direct Exchequer funding would put RTÉ on a sustainable financial footing. It would allow for rigorous financial oversight by the Comptroller and Auditor General and would ensure financial scandals like those we have seen in RTÉ would be a thing of the past, never to be tolerated or to happen again.

The Government has suggested this would impact RTÉ's editorial independence but none of this will. The commission's report is clear and makes recommendations on that and to how multi-annual funding would be provided. Nobody suggests TG4 is being interfered with. It is Exchequer funded. It is not funded by the licence fee and there is no suggestion its editorial independence is in any way jeopardised by that. I ask the Tánaiste to stop dithering and delaying, to make a decision to scrap the licence fee, to replace that financing with Exchequer funding and to fulfil the recommendations of the commission's report.

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