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

I cannot give a date today but we should make a decision on this in the coming weeks, and certainly in the coming months. I agree that at a time when misinformation and disinformation are rife and are undermining democracy here and around the world, it is important to fund public service media and broadcasting. That cannot just be about RTÉ for reasons I think we will all agree on. The current model is to fund it through a mixture of the Exchequer and the TV licence. We will examine the options of a full Exchequer system or a system like the Deputy proposes, which is combined Exchequer funding and a household charge. We will weigh up the options and decide how it is done. There will always need to be an element of Exchequer funding. The current TV licence exempts people on very low incomes and older people. That would have to be the case for any household charge too.

The point the Deputy makes is very valid. Even if I may personally favour an Exchequer-funded model, which happens and works in some countries, I have a concern about such a model. It is that not this Government but perhaps a future government, led by the Deputy opposite, would have full control over the funding of RTÉ and public service broadcasting. There is a gross conflict of interest in somebody who is suing RTÉ deciding how much funding RTÉ would get. That would be a big problem for our democracy and we have to bear that in mind.

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