Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As my colleague said, it is disappointing we are now speaking on a Bill without any pre-legislative scrutiny being done. This is another example of the Government refusing to engage constructively in the legislative process. We saw this last week when the planning Bill was rushed through the Dáil and guillotined, and we are seeing a similar issue now with the absence of pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government should be producing legislation that can stand up to scrutiny and should not be afraid to have its legislation looked at. It is not fully clear who will be levied or when. There seems to be no clarity on this, but these are the kinds of issues that could have been teased out at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage. There are merits to this Bill, however. It is vital that Coimisiún na Meán is properly funded and that there is an input into digital services.

I raise another issue, namely, the scrapping of the TV licence. The Minister gave a commitment in this House and the committee on plans for the TV licence. We are now in the middle of June with no decision made as the issue was kicked down the road until after the European and local elections. People want an answer to what is happening with the TV licence before the Dáil goes into recess. It is clear it has fallen off the Government's agenda. We should not have to wait for another scandal to break or something else to go wrong before a decision on this regressive and outdated levy is made. We know that people want a State broadcaster. We know they want to trust the news. They want to know about issues like those that have arisen in the past few weeks where games that should be shown on free-to-air TV are being shown on GAAGO so the GAA and RTÉ can make money. However, if RTÉ is the State broadcaster, why are these games not being shown? We need a broadcaster that is funded, and one we can trust. Dragging people through the courts is not what we need to be doing at this stage.

I will also make a comment on Apple computers. It is understood that this Bill will impose a levy on Apple computers through its search engines and Internet browsers. Apple has large offices in my constituency of Cork North-Central. It is a huge employer and is currently expanding. All of this is welcome. I believe that when companies like Apple are in the heart of communities they must be encouraged to employ from the local area and contribute to that area. I have met representatives of Apple and will meet them again. I want to discuss with the company support for sporting and community organisations in my constituency. Apple is a success story, and we support that success story in my community, but we also want to see the community benefit from its success. In March, it was revealed that Apple's Irish organisation made profits last year of €66 billion. This is a huge sum of money, and it is vital that a small portion of that is redistributed to the communities in which Apple is based. We saw changes made to the regeneration programme in Knocknaheeny to facilitate Apple's expansion. The communities in Knocknaheeny and Holyhill have supported Apple for years. We now want to see Apple investing in sport, the arts, the community and the local area. Opportunities are there. We have one of the biggest companies in the world making some unbelievable profits and we want to see the northside of Cork city share in that. I do not think that is too much to ask.

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