Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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396. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount retained by the State from the television licence fee in view of the fact that RTÉ was in receipt of €179.3 million in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47764/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The licence fee is distributed in accordance with Section 123 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 to both RTÉ and TG4 in order to facilitate the pursuit of their public service objectives, which are also set out in the 2009 Act.

An Post pays the Department all TV licence revenues collected from direct sales of TV licences and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) pays a contribution in respect of free TV licences issued under the Household Benefits Scheme. The total receipts from An Post and DEASP in 2016 was €213.7m. The Department deducts commission payable to An Post for their agency role and 7% of the net receipts goes to the Broadcasting Fund, which is operated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). For 2016, TG4 received €9.2m from the licence fee monies and the remainder was paid to RTÉ.

The following table shows the distribution of licence fee monies for 2016.