Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, of course. They are providing a very good service but there is no recognition for their current affairs and news programmes, which are very expensive to produce. Those stations are surviving on things like the death notices, which are one of their biggest sources of revenue. They are competing with RTE for advertising revenue.

I note that in 2015 RTE got €178 million from the television licence and €155 million from advertising, bringing its income to €333 million, which is a lot of money. There is a large number of staff in RTE. It has a public service obligation and it pays for several orchestras as well as for TG4 and several radio stations. RTE is an outstanding public broadcaster. Last Sunday I watched its latest drama which was home produced, in conjunction with the BBC. It is proving very popular and is attracting a large audience. "The Late Late Show" also attracts a fantastic audience because it is live, current and lively. RTE also has some tremendous broadcasters. I know that they are expensive and people complain regularly about the cost of paying certain broadcasters. The broadcasters in receipt of the highest salaries complain about the salaries of Senators and Deputies regularly, although their own salaries are more than generous. I note agreement has been reached on further cuts to the budget in RTE as the broadcaster is in pretty dire straits at the moment.

The Minister has rejected the idea of collecting money from people with mobile devices and I think he is right because it would be practically uncollectible. People can have mobile devices in their cars or elsewhere and tracing them would be very difficult. I would be concerned if the Minister were to transfer responsibility for the collection of the television licence fee from An Post. When I was in the then Department of Post and Telegraphs many years ago, we always fought for that. I do not see why An Post is so enthusiastic about tendering for this particular provision and I would ask the Minister to elaborate on that. Why is An Post so enthusiastic about a tendering system when it is now in charge of the collection? The percentage is going down every year. We have to come up with ways of counteracting this. I note that a campaign is running at the moment relating to the television licence, which references Terry's hot tubs. While it is a rather funny advertisement, it is not very clear. I would urge the Minister to consider an amnesty for a number of months. People who do not currently have a licence could be given a certain amount of time to get one, regardless of how long they have had their television and be assured that they will not be pursued through the courts. I make that suggestion to the Minister, respectfully. There was an tax amnesty at one stage in the past which was very successful.