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

People Before Profit published a plan for the funding of RTÉ and public broadcasting in August last year. It was obvious at that stage that there was a funding crisis. The TV licence has always been a regressive charge. After the Government's issues and the Tubridy scandal, it was obvious this could not work but the Government has not made a decision. The consequence is that 13,000 people get dragged through the courts for a regressive charge that it is not viable and that has to go. It is also clear that workers and jobs are going to be the collateral damage in RTÉ. They are talking about job suppression, which means good jobs will be privatised and outsourced, and the quality of public service broadcasting will be degraded. It will precisely hit arts, culture and entertainment.

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