RTÉ is now asking the Government for a 32% increase in its licence fee top-up this year, which is worth under €55 million. We must ensure that any money allocated to the broadcaster is not outbalanced by overspends by RTÉ in other areas. RTÉ is in front of us at the public accounts committee tomorrow. It has stated that TV licence sales have declined by 19% since 2022. It claims this is caused by households not necessarily having TVs, but we all know that is only part of the story. A major possible cause of the drop in sales is the fact that there have been financial scandals and unnecessary overspends. Spending in areas such as the limousines for €35,000, the high spending on termination payments last year, as well as €56,000 in expenses being spent on 41 members of RTÉ going to Czechia for the Ireland qualifier earlier this year, are issues that are coming up. With such levels of public spending on the broadcaster, while RTÉ provides a good service for the country, we need clarity on what the future funding model is.

The House has been divided on the correct funding and revenue response to public service broadcasting more generally. Various Oireachtas committees in the last number of years have had different proposals. One was for an overall levy on all devices including tablets and so forth, which would create a resource to enable public service broadcasting. We then had the wider issues of accountability and so forth. While all of those issues that the Deputy referenced have to be interrogated, and people held accountable for them, the bottom line is that when we add it all up, it does not come near the more global issue. The general financial requirement of RTÉ is in the millions. The big issue, I believe, is that the licence fee does make a contribution, so this constant undermining of it only makes things worse. People are not prepared to support the universal levy, and there is no consensus on that in the House. We have problems here, but we need to make up our minds on what we want for RTÉ.