Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened with interest to the Minister's response. In fairness to her, she actually agrees with Sinn Féin, because she stated clearly in media interviews and she articulated it again today that the recommendation from the expert group that was established by the Government, which looked at all of the options for how we fund public service media and public service content, and having looked at all of them, including best practice internationally, it came down on one. The report ruled out every other option, which is the option that Sinn Féin is putting forward today.

The Minister agrees with it, but two and a half years on from when the chairperson wrote his foreword to that report and submitted it to the Minister, who is across the Chamber, she has completely and utterly failed to act. In today's amendment we have a reference to some unforeseen time when the Minister may be able to get the agreement of her Cabinet colleagues on what they will do and how they will fund the public service media – RTÉ, TG4 and other providers of public service content. The reality is that there is only one show in town – the issue has already been examined - and that is, we need to abolish the TV licence. That is what our motion calls for. We need to do what Coimisiún na Meán recommended, which is that the public funding of the media should come from Exchequer funding. It is clear - in black and white - from 2024 the source of public funding for public service media should change from the current system of a TV licence combined with general Exchequer funds to a system based entirely on general Exchequer funds. The Taoiseach may say that is populist, but I do not think that the panel he appointed is populist. I ask the Minister to dismiss what the Taoiseach says in that regard. These are people who looked at this in great detail. What needs to be done is that the TV licence needs to be abolished and we need to fund it from Exchequer funding.

The Minister tried desperately but she cannot get Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin to agree with her on this. We know what they want to do. They want to introduce a new household charge, which the commission said we should not do. They want to do that but they do not want to tell anybody. At least they do not want to tell anybody before the local and European elections. They had this report for two and half years, long before there was a scandal in terms of the public's awareness of what was happening within RTÉ and they have continued to kick the can down the road.

The Minister tried to suggest that the numbers in our document do not add up. For example, she says that our proposal for €140 million in additional money is not enough, yet €140 million in additional funding, on top of the €69 million for the free TV licence in the household package, and including the €57 million for TG4, and the €40 million that has been provided to RTÉ already, does add up to what the commission recommended in its report in table 5.2 on page 144. If the Minister wants to get her phone and Google it, she will see it there.

She also makes the point that we do not provide for the media fund. Does she think that the commission recommended in table 5.2 that the media fund was something different when it recommended that the €300 million target be reached in 2024? The media fund is part of it. The Minister should look at the table, which is again on page 144. The reference to a media fund of €30 million is there. Not only are we providing €300 million, which is what the commission recommended, we actually go to €305 million, because TG4 has got a little bit more than what the commission recommended in the intervening four-year period. I beg the Minister not to give misinformation. Let us deal with the facts here. The fact is that people have lost trust in RTÉ. People have lost trust in the TV licence. One in four people has refused to pay the TV licence and the Government believes they should be hauled before the courts, tying up court time and Garda resources.

What we need to do is what the Government has failed to do for the last two and a half years, which is to implement the recommendations of the expert body; abolish the TV licence and put public service media on a certain footing, with a triple lock. The triple lock is that first, it would be multi-annual funding; second, it would be independently put forward by Coimisiún na Meán and; third, if a Minister were to deviate from it, a written explanation - that would be laid out in legislation - would have to be provided and it would only happen with votes in both Houses of the Oireachtas. That would provide certainty for the media. I urge the Government to implement the recommendations and to stop hiding behind what it really plans to do, which is to apply a new additional charge on people.

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