Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----or rather the director general of RTÉ made a good point today in terms of the cost of RTÉ being 44 cent per day compared with what we are getting from services like Netflix, Sky or whatever. In the context of the point Senator McDowell made, I made the point in the House last Thursday, and I ask to be let make this point without interruption, because it is an important one, that we have established citizens' assemblies to examine many different issues around gender. I made the point last week that we should also look at the role of local government. The issue of RTÉ and the licence fee collection and the level of licence fee payment should also be part of a citizens' assembly, that we should not kick the can further down the road, and that we should have an honest debate about it. We cannot have it here. Pat Rabbitte attempted it and he was pilloried by sections of the Fourth Estate. We need public sector broadcasting. "Sunday Miscellany" and arts and sports programming are examples that show there is a real need for public service broadcasting. There is an opportunity to expand the remit of the citizens' assembly being established in January to include the role of RTÉ and the amount and collection of the television licence.