Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not. There are a number of options. One option is direct Exchequer funding but that funding might otherwise go to education, health or pensions, for example, and it would potentially give future governments undue influence over RTÉ if RTÉ was funded directly from the Exchequer. We know there is somebody in this House who might be head of the next Government and who is suing RTÉ at the moment. It would be a huge conflict of interest to have people who are suing RTÉ deciding how much money it gets paid. That is not the kind of democracy we want. It is the kind of thing we are starting to see happen in the United States and other places. I would not want that to be the case in our State. An alternative option is a household media charge collected by Revenue. That needs to be considered. Those options are under consideration by the Government and we will make a decision on that this year but it will require legislation-----

See this speech in context