Sinn Féin to table motion to abolish TV licence

The party will bring a motion to the Dáil on Tuesday which calls on the Government to scrap the licence and replace it with direct Exchequer funding for public broadcasting. 

The TV licence should be scrapped and an amnesty declared for all people who haven't paid it, Sinn Féin has said.

The party will bring a motion to the Dáil on Tuesday which calls on the Government to scrap the licence and replace it with direct Exchequer funding for public broadcasting. 

The motion calls for the funding, which Cork North-Central TD Thomas Gould says would work out at around €140m a year to be put into "a platform-neutral Media Fund which would support public service media content production and activities of commercial, local and community providers, RTÉ and TG4".

The issue of RTÉ's future funding is a source of contention among the Cabinet, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Media Minister Catherine Martin both favouring direct funding. However, Finance and Public Expenditure ministers Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe both believe the TV licence should be kept.

Sinn Féin's plan would see €12.5m to An Post to offset the loss of TV licence income.

Mr Gould said that 13,000 people had been taken to court last year over non-payment of the licence and that this amounted to the same amount — around €2m — lost in the Toy Show The Musical "debacle". He said that there was an unfairness in "ordinary people" facing fines while "top officials and board members and executive were able to do whatever they want with no accountability".

“When you look at the cost of the court cases, the time, the energy that’s spent on it and to be honest, to be bringing the person into court is a shocking waste of money but also of people’s dignity and integrity. So we believe an amnesty is the right way to go,” Mr Gould added.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin two weeks ago told the Dáil that he had concerns about media independence if RTÉ received direct government funding but said he shared Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty’s “dismay at the unfolding events within RTÉ” and the absence of governance at the broadcaster.

Speaking in the US last week, Mr Martin said that his preference would be for the fee to be collected through Revenue, with the possibility for the charge to be cut as part of the change.

Mr Doherty rejected as "nonsense" the idea that Sinn Féin wanted to "control" RTÉ through funding. He said that the proposal for direct funding was proposed by Coimisiún na Meán and that the Sinn Féin proposal has a "triple lock" system.

"There is protection there in relation to the independence of the media, where it will be multiannual funding over a four-year period as suggested by Coimisiún na Meán. The second is that it will be independently put forward by Coimisiún na Meán as to the level of funding that will be required over the four years. And third that the minister of the day could only deviate from that in exceptional circumstances as would be laid down in legislation. So there is a triple lock there similar to what happened in terms of Norway and what happens in other countries."

Both Sinn Féin TDs said that they had paid their TV licence.