Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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66. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if a waiver will be put in place for television licences for holiday homes in 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13644/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Covid-19 crisis highlights more than ever the importance of public service broadcasting to our society. It is vital that the Irish public have a readily available, reliable source of information on Covid-19 and the measures being put in place to tackle the crisis.

Equally as important are the sources of funding that make it possible for public service broadcasting to operate. At a time when advertising revenues are falling, the Covid-19 crisis is putting considerable strain on the resources of all broadcasters. Licence fee receipts are therefore essential to maintaining the service provided by RTÉ. The Sound and Vision Fund is also financed from the TV licence fee which provided funding for a special Covid-19 round of €2.5m for commercial radio in 2020. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) also ran a special round under Sound and Vision for community radio of €750,000. Similar rounds are being run in 2021 to support the independent production sector and maintain jobs in the industry.

Given the importance of these services at the present time, it is not my intention to introduce waivers on TV licence payments on holiday homes.