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Television Licence Fee Payments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 November 2012

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Questions (139)

Sandra McLellan

Question:

139. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will consider reducing the cost of TV licences; the reason the national broadcaster does not cover the licence fee in view of the huge amount of money they receive through advertising; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51957/12]

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Written answers

As the Deputy is aware, RTÉ is funded through both a Grant-In-Aid for a proportion of broadcasting licence fee receipts and through the commercial revenue it generates. This dual funding model, which is consistent with EU State Aid rules, has been in place since the establishment of Raidió Teilifis Éireann at the start of the 1960’s and is reflective of Ireland’s population size and the nature of its market place. Just as it would be too onerous a burden on television households to seek to fund RTÉ solely from TV Licence receipts, it would not be sustainable from a media market point of view to try to operate it on a purely commercial basis.

In regard to the actual mechanism for helping to determine the level of the licence fee, this is set out in Section 124 of the Broadcasting Act 2009. In particular it allows for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to recommend in a report to me, as Minister, an annual licence fee modification. This recommendation is based on an annual review on the extent to which RTÉ has fulfilled its commitments in respect of its public service objects stated in its annual statement of performance commitments for that financial year and the adequacy or otherwise of public funding to enable the corporation to meet its public service objects.

The recommendation from the Authority informs any decision I, as Minister, may take in conjunction with the Government on adjusting the current level of television fee or otherwise. In addition to the statutory requirement for annual reviews of the public service broadcasters, Section 124(8) of the Broadcasting Act 2009 requires the BAI to also carry out a long term forward looking 5-year review on the adequacy or otherwise of the funding of public service broadcasters. The first 5 year review is now being undertaken by the BAI and will assist in informing any policy decisions I may take on the future public funding of public service broadcasters.

The broadcasting sector in general, including the public broadcasting sector, has been facing a very challenging funding environment over the last few years with a large fall in commercial advertising revenues. As regards public sector broadcasters, this situation demands that they remain vigilant in relation to cost containment whilst trying as far as possible to mitigate the impact on output and programming. I acknowledge that both RTÉ and TG4 have been proactive in this regard but the efforts must be maintained and indeed intensified.

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