Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

This is a regressive tax no matter how it is looked at. The poorest eligible household in the country pays €160 and the richest household in the country pays €160. It is a regressive, unjust tax that hundreds of thousands of people are refusing to pay, a number that has increased in the context of the outrage at what was happening at the very top of RTÉ, with massive pay for those at the very top and the behaviour with the spending of public money on flip-flops, exclusive clubs and all the rest. The Minister says here that he cannot comment but he has commented to RTÉ, saying that his preference is for keeping some form of TV licence. Is it not time to stop dragging 60 people to court a day for non-payment of the TV licence, to see the writing on the wall, to scrap this regressive tax, and instead to properly fund RTÉ as opposed to pursuing a privatisation and outsourcing agenda?

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