TV licence fee should be for the national interest

REGARDING RTÉ’s expected application for a rise in the TV licence. This problem is ongoing for over 20 years where our national broadcaster is allowed to overspend on its annual budget and ending up with a large debt.

It is the fault of our government over the years in not insisting that RTÉ puts proper financial controls systems in place.

RTÉ is allowed to spend millions of euro to buy rights to broadcast programmes such as Eastenders on the national channel RTE1.

Using our licence fee to broadcast soaps like Eastenders is not in our cultural interest.

If RTÉ wants to use some of their commercial ability in raising revenue through advertising, then RTÉ should set up their own commercial channel or convert Network2 into a commercial channel without funding from the licence fees.

Leave the licence fee purely for the national cultural and educational interests of our country.

Patrick Fitzpatrick

Glanmire

Co Cork