Television licence and RTÉ funding
Deputy Doherty attacked the collapsing television licence system and RTÉ scandals, asking what the Tánaiste would do. The Tánaiste defended public service broadcasting and refused the call to abolish funding, and Doherty pressed again for a direct answer.
The television licence is in big trouble, and it has had its day. Sales, as the Tánaiste knows, have collapsed. New figures show that fewer than 300,000 licences have been sold so far this year. When we consider that nearly 1 million licences were sold in 2022, we can see the scale of the problem. One-in-three households liable to pay has simply stopped paying the television licence. It is a staggering drop in the past four years, and the public are sick to their teeth of the raft of financial scandals at RTÉ, the constant waste of public money and that culture of entitlement that does not seem to have gone away.
People are voting with their feet. That is the reality. Sales are plummeting every year, and it presents a real problem for the funding of public media. It also presents the Government with a decision. It has to choose whether to chase hundreds of thousands of people through the courts for not paying their television licence or it can move to a modern, sustainable funding model though the Exchequer. It is time to face reality. The TV licence has to be scrapped. Will the Government scrap the television licence or is its intention to just pursue 300,000 or 400,000 through the courts?
Comment on this
It is not that crude at all. I thought that we were going through a Thursday where the Deputy was not going to call on me to abolish a tax or a charge or spend loads more money but I should have known that it is Thursday, and it happens every Thursday. The reality of the situation is that public service broadcasting matters. Public service broadcasting needs to be funded. I encourage the Deputy to support public service broadcasting. There have been a range of scandals and crises in RTÉ but there are also really good and decent people working in public service broadcasting. There are also really good people working in public service broadcasting beyond RTÉ. I think people in Ireland value public service broadcasting; I do. I have my television licence, and I am sure the Deputy has his.
Comment on this
What is the Tánaiste going to do about it? Will he answer the question?