Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the Bill, which will be of considerable benefit. It deals with a matter that needed to be addressed for some time considering the public service broadcasting element, which the licence fee should cover. For some time there has been debate over the extent to which the licence fee has been used for this purpose. While I agree that RTE has done a fine job for many years, it is important in the current changing environment with so many competitors in the marketplace that a fund should be established, which would be capable of being ring-fenced as this Bill sets out to do.