Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Communications; Energy and Natural Resources if it his intention to recommend to Government that the broadcasting licence be reduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37433/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Section 124 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 sets out the mechanism by which increases or decreases of the television licence fee may be determined. In particular, it allows for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, to recommend in a report to the Minister an annual licence fee modification. This recommendation is to be based on an annual review on the extent to which RTE has fulfilled its commitments in respect of its public service objectives stated in its annual statement of performance commitments for that financial year and the adequacy, or otherwise, of public funding to enable the corporation to meet its public service objectives.

A review of RTE's 2009 public service commitments and adequacy of funding was carried out by the BAI and submitted to my Department in December 2010. The authority recommended there be no modification made to the licence fee with which I formally agreed.

I expect to receive the authority's review of RTE's 2010 public service commitments and adequacy of funding in the next fortnight. This review will contain a recommendation from the authority on a licence fee modification. I look forward to examining this review and its findings on the adequacy of funding in RTE. This review will inform any decision I may take, in conjunction with the Government, on adjusting the current level of the television licence fee or otherwise. Any such decision will be informed by any relevant decisions taken in the context of the budget.

In making any decision on television licence fee modification, I will need to be mindful of the impact such a modification would have on the recipients of net television licence fee receipts. The legislation provides that I pay approximately 88% of net television licence fee receipts to RTE, 7% to the BAI in respect of the broadcasting funding scheme for public and independent broadcasters and 5% to TG4 in addition to its direct grant-in-aid from Exchequer funds. I will also be very mindful of the impact on persons who pay the licence fee.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

The broadcasting sector in general, including the public broadcasting sector, has been facing a challenging funding environment over the past several years with a large fall in commercial advertising revenues. As regards public sector broadcasters, this situation behoves them to be vigilant on cost containment while trying as far as possible to mitigate the impact on output and programming. I acknowledge that both RTE and TG4 have been proactive in this regard but the efforts must be maintained and indeed intensified.

In addition to the statutory requirement for annual reviews of the public service broadcasters, section 124(8) of the Broadcasting Act 2009 requires the BAI to also carry out a long-term forward looking five-year review on the adequacy, or otherwise, of the funding of public service broadcasters not more than three years after the passing of the Broadcasting Act 2009. I look forward to receiving this review, which is due to be completed by the authority by mid-2012 at the latest, as it will assist in informing any policy decisions I may take on the future public funding of public service broadcasters.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Does the Minister agree it would be a great help to householders if the television licence was reduced? Does he also agree that given RTE can pay exorbitant salaries to both staff and contractors at the top end - I do not refer to ordinary workers - and it has a surfeit of money provided by the taxpayer, it would be a good idea to give that money back to the licence fee payer rather than paying exorbitant salaries to these workers on top of the generous holidays and other arrangements they have?

When the Minister speaks to the BAI regarding RTE's expenditure, will he seek a detailed outline of all the costs incurred by the station over the past year as a result of libel actions, including the awards in successful actions against the station? Will he take action on foot of that?

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Given the straitened economic circumstances in which we have found ourselves over the past three years, the Deputy is correct that any alleviation of charges, fees or levies on people generally would be helpful but he should not hold out a reduction in the television licence fee as alleviating the pressures under which people find themselves. I am not sure that of itself it would constitute a significant mitigation of the burden.

I take it that when the Deputy referred to high earning people in RTE, he was referring to a small number of contract staff because in so far as I have examined this - primarily it is a matter for the board and management of the station - it is not fair to broadcast the canard that ordinary RTE workers are paid exorbitant salaries. That is not the case. Some of the first impositions in terms of reductions and so on or constraints in the cost base were imposed in RTE and a severe redundancy programme has just concluded. The Deputy is probably referring to a small number of highly paid contract staff and my understanding from the chairman and director general is steps have been taken in that regard, having regard to the contracts those people entered into in the profligate years.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Every little would help the licence fee payer and every small reduction would be a help. If the fee increased a little, many people would say that would be a big imposition and, therefore, it is important if it comes down a little.

I agree it is only a small number of staff at the top of the pyramid, as is the case in all these organisations, who receive large payments. Some are PAYE staff as I understand the figures and others are contractors. However, this was only a device to break the pay guidelines. Let us not cod ourselves; these people do not bring anything to the job except themselves. I am talking about them and, in my first question, I specifically excluded the ordinary staff in RTE. Will the Minister take steps to ensure licence fee money is not paid to condone pay levels that are totally out of line with the industry norm? Other broadcasters do not offer anything like the salaries or conditions RTE provides. Will the Minister ensure in return for the licence fee income that these salaries are brought down to the average across the industry nationwide rather than remaining at the exorbitant levels we have at the moment?

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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It is important to bear in mind that broadcasting is suffering the same stresses and strains as the economy in general. There has been a dramatic reduction in RTE's commercial income, which is nowhere near what it was three years ago. That is a serious development. There has been a significant shift of advertising away from the traditional television platform and towards the Internet. I presume Deputy Ó Cuív would share my surprise regarding an estimate which indicates that this year Internet advertising will exceed that which relates to television. A couple of years ago, no one would have made a projection to the effect that this would be the case. However, it has already become a reality.

In addition to the stresses and strains of the economic situation, there is the convergence of technologies to consider. These aspects all give rise to a challenge for the national broadcaster. When he served as a Minister, the Deputy participated in a decision - it was probably a good one - to devote some €10 million from licence fees to TG4. The sound and vision fund also benefits to the tune of 7%. It must be recognised, therefore, that certain constraints apply.