Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I give the Bill a guarded welcome. A statement made by the Minister to the effect that there was to be a clamp-down on profiteering from sales of radio broadcasting licences was carried in yesterday's Irish Independent. Many of those licences were issued 14 years ago and licence holders are now making excessive profits. The licences have made millionaires of many people and one might say good luck to them. In many cases the licences have been sold on to companies outside the country. I have been saying for some time that it is regrettable there was no provision in the original legislation for a clawback in order that this revenue would return to the State. If it were returned, a body such as the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland could decide how to dispense the funding. I welcome the Minister's decision to review the original scheme and to appoint consultants or consultant associates to look into this matter. This is timely and is very much in accordance with what I have been saying from any platform available to me over the past two years.

The Bill is welcome. Last December there was a substantial increase in television licence fees to about €140. At the time RTE's concern was that the level of increase would ease the type of financial difficulties it was experiencing. Earlier this year the Minister said that having received the increase, the RTE authority would have to justify itself and that it would look bad for the authority if, at the end of this year, it turned to the State and said it was not making a profit and would need further State assistance. While RTE had a deficit in the first six months and advertising revenue had dropped somewhat – Proctor and Gamble, because of a dispute, was not advertising on the station – the Minister has had reassurance that RTE will rectify the problem in the final six months of the year. We would all be extremely surprised if RTE came back next year and said it was having viability problems again. It has attempted to satisfy the Houses on the basis that it is making management changes within the organisation and has shed a lot of people in order to achieve a true profit situation.