Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A vibrant, diverse, financially sustainable and independent media sector is critical to any well functioning democracy. Across Europe, the TV licence model is being phased out because it is outdated and does not work. The Minister is aware that in 2022 the Future of Media Commission recommended the TV licence fee be replaced by direct Exchequer funding in 2024. The Minister's Government chose to ignore that recommendation and kicked the can down the road by means of reform.

The Minister is aware that in the previous Dáil term, just last year, the media committee also officially recommended the TV licence fee should be abolished and replaced with Exchequer funding. The Government sat on its hands, again, and did nothing to progress this. Both of these bodies made these recommendations after long and considered discussions and consideration of all of the information required to make such a decision. They were not knee-jerk reactions to the multiple scandals - which are still unresolved in some cases - around governance and spending in RTÉ. In fact, the Future of Media Commission recommendation was made before any of the RTÉ scandals were unearthed.

The RTÉ scandals did have a knock-on effect and there was a total reduction in revenue generated by TV licence sales for the 12-month period between July 2023 and June 2024 that amounted to a reduction of €29 million compared with the year before, prior to the scandals being uncovered. When will the reform happen? We need to get timelines on this from the Minister. I appreciate his response but this issue is not going away.

See this speech in context