Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to say a couple of things about the Bill. It does make sense for RTÉ to be divested of responsibility for the National Symphony Orchestra because I think RTÉ has to concentrate on the day job, so to speak, of getting its own finances in order and seeing its role as a broadcaster. I am strongly in favour of public sector broadcasting. I regard one of the frightening things that is happening in the United Kingdom as an agenda on the part of the Conservative Party to bring down the BBC, which is one of the great institutions of that jurisdiction, and we in this country should remember how important public service broadcasting actually is and how important it is to conserve it and improve it. If a narrowing down of the focus of the RTÉ authority enables it to concentrate on the day job of public service broadcasting, I am happy to do that.

There are two points I want to make in regard to this legislation. First, it will improve the financial position of RTÉ notionally and, second, it will improve its concentration on its mission statement. I want to reiterate something which I have spoken about for six years now, since becoming a Senator again, and that is the whole question of financing public service broadcasting. I really believe the Government is funking that issue. It would make far more sense to stop all this interminable advertising on television and radio, reminding us about the need to have a television licence, the cost of collecting it and the cost to RTÉ of unpaid licence fees, and so on, and if that revenue flow was realised by reference to residential property tax and, in the case of commercial properties, by using broadcasting facilities, such as hotels and places of entertainment, and their local authority rates.It is almost impossible to ethically work out, if you look at some matters on your tablet at home, whether you are breaching the requirement for a TV licence. By the same token, there is the absurdity that some families who go for a holiday for two weeks per year to Bunclody, Brittas Bay or wherever else it may be in Ireland, are theoretically obliged to apply for a second TV licence for that premises just because they bring a mobile TV set with them.

It seems to me that the fairest and most rational way to finance public sector broadcasting is to give up the notion of a licence because it is impossible to license phones, laptops and tablets in any rational way. The former Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, talked about people living in a cave who do not have access to these things and was dubbed the man in charge of the cave tax project at the time. Let us be honest; it is almost impossible to say that any household is not receiving what might broadly be described as visual broadcast services through various devices in the house. It seems to me that the most rational way of recovering money to subsidise public service broadcasting would be to apply it to every home in the country, no matter what. There are very few people who have abstained completely from any connection with public service broadcasting. Even the people who get public service radio broadcasting are no longer required to pay for a radio licence but the TV licence covers it. The time has come for us to get modern and efficient and to stop the incessant advertising on the radio and television about the requirement to have a licence and the good news that this advertisement is brought to you by the Government of Ireland, which always amuses me, as if this to try to improve Government popularity. We should face up to that.

On the National Concert Hall campus, I am old enough to remember going to a freshers exhibition in University College Dublin, UCD, in what is now the National Concert Hall, which was then a big empty space used for study and exams by UCD. The National Concert Hall has its limitations and I would encourage the Minister to think big on this and to use that extensive campus, which has the Iveagh Gardens at the back of it and the old medical schools of UCD to one end, to generate an even better hall than the present one. I would strongly support any way that can be done within the budgetary envelopes for capital expenditure.

I support the purpose of the Bill, which is sensible. If RTÉ is concentrating on the day job, that calls into question whether RTÉ 2FM is necessary. There are plenty of radio stations providing that service. I do not know whether it is a financial breadwinner for RTÉ or whether it costs more than it receives in advertising revenue. There are a vast number of music stations in competition with it and unless there is a strong case for its retention, I suggest that it be disposed of in order that the core function of public service broadcasting can be concentrated on. When we look at the output of RTÉ, at its best it is very good. I am not suggesting that it should be a channel for pointy-headed intellectuals but there are huge opportunities to improve our knowledge and deepen our culture by using and subsidising public service broadcasting and giving RTÉ adequate resources with which to carry on that function. It is for this reason that I strongly support this legislation but I ask the Minister to consider whether the time has not come to grasp the nettle of the TV licence and to recover the same revenue and even more revenue through the change I have spoken about.