Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Senator Butler. It is always good to hear good news, which is rare enough.It was reported on Monday that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment is considering expanding the definition of a television set under the broadcasting legislation to include laptops, computers, and possibly iPads. The Minister has the power to do this under legislation of 2009 but it would be a drastic move, tantamount to bringing in a broadcasting charge. Virtually every person in the country has a computer, a laptop or an iPad, either for work purposes or day-to-day communication. Whether they watch television or not, every person in the country could be obliged to pay the licence fee if the Minister makes such a change to the law. There has been a lot of confusion in recent years about the possibility of such a charge. In July 2013, the then Minister, Pat Rabbitte, made a clear commitment to introducing a broadcasting charge by 2015 and by the time that date arrived his successor, Alex White, told this House that he believed a public service broadcasting charge was inevitable, though not during his term. Last year, our current Minister, Deputy Naughten, told the communications committee that the charge would not be introduced but should not be shelved completely. At the same meeting, Deputy Timmy Dooley of Fianna Fáil seemed to agree in principle with the idea of a charge. I do not like the idea of a broadcasting charge being introduced by stealth and I certainly do not like the idea of it coming in by the use of a statutory instrument.

We heard a bizarre interview on Newstalk with the new director general of RTE, Dee Forbes, who told us the licence fee would be good value even if it was doubled. She walked back any suggestion that she was seeking a doubling of the fee but it suggests that some people in RTE management are on a different planet. It is time to discuss the issues around the threatened broadcasting charge and the licence fee and I call on the Minister, Deputy Naughten, to come to the House. I have been critical of RTE, in particular in relation to the significant ongoing cost to the taxpayer of funding it, and it is now time to decide whether RTE should be scaled back to a public broadcast core or privatised. RTE confirmed in 2015 that two of its presenters were paid between €400,000 and €500,000 per year, with two more earning between €200,000 and €300,000 per year and seven contractors earning between €150,000 and €200,000. Five staff were earning between €200,000 and €300,000. Is there any parallel for a taxpayer-funded organisation paying such massive salaries without any scrutiny or control by representatives of the people? Some countries have no television licence fee at all and others, such as Portugal and Greece, have very low fees.