Results 8,441-8,460 of 20,100 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: The Deputy's time is up.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: The Deputy is over time. I call Deputy Sherlock.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: Deputy Sherlock has ten minutes. We will break for ten minutes after that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: There are two minutes left.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: We will take a break for ten minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: We are back in public session.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: The Deputy is over time.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: I ask members to signal to me if they want to contribute on a second round of questions. I have a question for Ms Forbes in regard to the total wage bill at RTÉ. From the information supplied, I understand wages amount to €123 million, social welfare payments, PRSI and so forth amount to €13 million, pension costs are €13 million and €23 million is paid to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: It is 56%. I was not too far out. I have a question on the overall financial position, which Ms O'Shea may wish to answer. It has been stated that income has fallen more than €100 million in the past six years and costs have gone up in the region of €30 million. The yield to the company from the sale of land was approximately €100 million. I listened to the replies...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: We will keep the discussion concise. Given that a statute of limitations does not apply to an investigation by that Department, I find it hard to understand that RTÉ's financial section at this stage would not be doing some calculations as to the possible implications of that. We are talking about a substantial sum of money. In the context of a decline in income and the organisation...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: In regard to the €100 million yielded from the sale of the land, RTÉ outlined to the committee previously that it was being used as capital investment to improve infrastructure on an annual basis. How much of that €100 million is left at this stage?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: I saw that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: I am pleased to hear that an increase in the licence fee is not being sought because it would be unfair to those who are paying it. As I said to Ms Forbes last April, some of them are in low-income households and are dutifully paying that €160 every year. The licence fee makes up 57% of RTÉ's funding. The fee is not being collected from 14% or 15% of households and then there...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: Approximately 14% of households that should pay a television licence fee are not paying it. The documentation supplied indicates that a further 15% of households are without a television. I was surprised at how high that figure is. Is it correct that 29% or 30% of households in the State are not paying a television licence fee?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: I am delighted to hear that RTÉ is not seeking an increase in the television licence fee because it would be unfair to those households that are paying, particularly the low-income households. I know the fee is collected by the Department and collection is contracted out to An Post. Is RTÉ in favour of improving the database? I have suggested this a number of times over the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: The proportion of households that have a television but which are not paying the licence fee has reached 14%. Regarding the figure of 15% we are being given for what are described as non-television households, how has that been reached? How has the information been gathered to be enable it to be stated that 15% of households do not have televisions? That is more than one in seven.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: The public, and particularly those people who are paying the television licence fee, and, as I said, especially households that are stretched to pay it because they are on low incomes, would be surprised to hear that more than one in seven households do not have a television set. Ms O'Shea stated that this is a recognised measurement, but the public would have a job accepting it. I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: I accept that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 33: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Programme E - Broadcasting (20 Jan 2022)

Brian Stanley: I thank Ms Forbes. Some Deputies have indicated that they wish to come back in a second time. I ask anyone else who wishes to contribute again to indicate. To be fair, I will call Deputy Devlin first because he has just joined the meeting and has not had the chance to comment yet.