Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

Fine Gael contends that the TV licence fee collection system is outdated and inefficient. It costs €12 million to collect €200 million, and that is too expensive. Many people now watch television programmes on their computers. Therefore, it is no longer valid simply to target television sets. There is also an issue that people who have a number of television sets have a liability for each. If they only declare two and have not paid a fee for another, could they be the victim of serious charges? Our suggestion to the Minister is that within the first year or 18 months of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's functioning, it would come up with alternative propositions on the funding of our public service broadcasting system, rather than the traditional licence system, which may be out of kilter with the new realities of how people access television programmes, the number of television sets in houses and even the collection methods, which are outmoded.