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THE TV LICENCE fee should be abolished and replaced with Exchequer funding, the Oireachtas’ media committee has officially recommended.
The Journal published yesterday that there was a “detailed discussion” at a meeting with the party leaders, public expenditure minister Paschal Donohoe and the finance minister but no decision was made on what Exchequer funding would look like.
The recommendation does not mean the TV licence fee will certainly be abolished, as that decision is still subject to a report from the Government’s working group on reforming the TV licence fee.
But this model was also recommended by the Future of Media Commission in a report published in 2022 and a more recent report in May from media minister Catherine Martin.
In 2022, the Government chose to retain the licence fee system – despite the Future of Media Commission report.
The top recommendation from committee’s lengthy report and the Minister’s report are likely be a weighted factors over Government when deciding the future funding model of public service broadcasting.
Fianna Fáil TD and Chair of the committee Niamh Smyth said that a multi-annual funding arrangement should also be established and maintained through performance commitments from recipients, such as RTÉ and TG4.
She added, however: “It is important to note that this report’s recommendations are aimed at not only the major public broadcasters, but to local, independent, and community media across all platforms.”
The committee recommends that means tests be carried out on a small percentage of funding levied to public service broadcasters, through a TV Licence fee or otherwise, and the remaining funds be contestable for local, independent and community media outlets.
Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s media regulator, will be in charge of the exchequer funding and it is also recommended that it develop codes for public service media content as enshrined in the Equal Status Acts 2000-2018.
This, in theory, will quash attempts from outlets who do not fulfil the definition of public service media in their content from receiving a disproportionate amount of funding.
Separately the committee has recommended that a national Irish-language radio station for young people be established and funded as well.
Government ministers are still at loggerheads over the future of the TV licence fee and RTÉ funding.
Martin has been fighting an uphill battle as the idea is being opposed by the Tánaiste, Donohoe and Chambers.
However, Martin’s idea of abolishing the licence fee and replacing it with direct government funding has now been endorsed by the committee.
Additional reporting by Christina Finn
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The woke labour needs to go, ppl of ireland, vote
anyone bar the current ppl in government, let’s stop this madness
@michal heba: the opposite of woke is ignorant.
@KL M: correct
@KL M: The opposite of “woke” is “common sense”.
@KL M: You need to be moving to the next fashionable mindset…woke has had its day.
@JP: Correct. They spend their days perpetually offended. It’s no wonder they don’t leave their childhood bedroom.
@JP: woke died Nov 5th in the US election thankfully
@michal heba: Fianna Fail reared you, gave you milk
@Marvin Dollery: you wouldn’t know what woke actually means if you fell over it. Hint- it doesn’t mean everything you don’t like
@michal heba: ‘The woke Labour’… Oh dear.
@Fintan Pox: dream on
@Marvin Dollery: buy, a dictionary.
@Faejit Balloobas: What an apt username.
@Frank Mc Carthy: Ha ha .You’ve been blabing on all weekend how you’d vote for Charlotte Fallon( no offence to the lady,) .. how much more woke can you get ? You’re such a confused lil troll all the same..lol.
@Brian: trolls be trolls I guess???…. Charlotte Fallon has more ‘uumph’ than you’ll ever have…. nothing WOKE about her at all
@KL M:
Opposite to woke is a Grown up.
@KL M: Your comment is exactly that.
@H Woo: Ha ha, quite the opposite
@Frank Mc Carthy: I’ve all the respect in the world for the woman.. but I’m not going around like some woke nutter all weekend blabbing on about how I’d vote for her .. You’re a confused lil hypocrite Ken. Woke one minute .. Misogynistic sexual predator fan boy the next. At least the other trolls on here a constantly one thing .. you try to hard to pretend your normal.. thats your problem Ken.
@michal heba: the utter idiocy of this comment. The Labour Party just secured a massive majority a few months ago. Why should there be another election? Cos you don’t agree with them? Tough that’s democracy
@michal heba: as the experience in the UK shows, nothing will change. Parties can promise all they like, but when they get into power and see the books, deal with the institutions of govt, when reality bites… Nothing changes. Especially true in the UK where no party has the balls to admit Brexit is an ongoing disaster
@Marvin Dollery: The opposite of woke is turning a blind eye, if you actually bother to research where the term woke came from
@Fintan Pox: ff destroyed this country, I was reared by Poland until I was 20,then moved here and worked 7 days a week x 20 years now i, 2-3jobs ,owner of a business, employing 5 people,it’s mee rearing ff you should say , out of my taxes .
@michal heba: Living here twenty years and you can barely speak English.
@Ollie McGlinchey: Don’t worry about my English pal.
@KL M: The opposite of woke, is common sense, intelligence and ‘living in the real world’.
@Tom O’ Donnell: The opposite of Woke is common sense, intelligence and living in the real world. Not a world of confused disturbed thinking.
@KL M: I think it refers to both.
@KL M: the opposite of woke is Real Life.
@Frank Mc Carthy: So did the long term future for democracy and equality. By the looks of the people he is placing in power anyway.
@Éamonn O’Kane: He can Google it for free!
@Marvin Dollery: Insults or attempts at them as usual. If anybody disagrees with you they get insulted.
As a distraction of course as once again you have been called out correctly!
@Brian: She pointed out the FG led governments have repeated reneged on promises made to the disability community.
The largest minority community in the country at 22% of the population.
Enda did it, Leo did it and Simon has done it.
@Tom O’ Donnell: He will never do that, he likes to think he knows everything and when it is pointed out to him he is wrong. He goes straight to insults!
@michal heba: You re wrong, Woke is nothing to do with Taxation. It is to do with equality and inclusion.
A country for everybody, not run by the church or for profit for corporations.
Where people can make money and help for those who cannot.
But…but… we’ve been in control for 14 years…Starmer isn’t playing the media game…The Daily Heil and Telegraph aren’t getting the same number of clicks…Cleaning up after 14 years of cuts and pillaging isn’t fun. Let’s make it stop with another election.
We want the good old days of the Windrush scandal, mini budgets, PPE contracts for our mates paid in advance that they never have to fulfil, a different fascist as Home Secretary every years.
We ploughed (pun intended) all our wealth into land so it would be inheritance tax free, now we have to pay half the rate normal people have to pay on it?? Taxes are for little people
@Ronan Mc: spot on
@Ronan Mc: you really nailed the average conservative in the Chelsea tractor and even more so the high end ones like Clarkson who admitted that he only bought the farm to avoid inheritance tax.
@Ronan Mc: As soon as he came power he went back on everything he promise . He took thousands worth of hand outs while people are struggling to feed themselves and heat their homes . The first people to suffer were the old age pensioners when he took away the winter fuel allowance while giving train drivers that were on a four day a week a massive pay rise. The man is no leader .
@Jack Moss: Jack’s back …
@Gaelactico:
Have Peter and Ronan ever been out of Ireland ?
@Gaelactico:
How are things going in the EU?
Germany pays for Europe. It is the sponsor of the entire European project. No one can replace the Germans.
Starmer was cosying up to EU leaders in recent weeks….I think they are missing UK………cash.
We see Sir K.
@Ronan Mc:
Reeves budget.
Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said profit is “not a dirty word” because it underpins firms’ ability to invest, but the Government’s actions have hampered that.
Jobs will be lost
.
2million + are marking Labours card
@Jack Moss: They put a means test on the heating allowance which is done in most countries.
The Tories agreed the deal with the train drivers but kept it quiet until they were gone.
they hid a massive hole in the public finances and wasted £240 million on Rwanda and the PPE scandal is good for another £10 billion, mostly to their friends and supporters.
So it is not his fault the state the country is in.
@Pat MCCormick: EU is fine, not perfect but working!
@Gary Kearney:
Sure it is.
Youth unemployment 14.8%.
PMI below 50.
Euro in trouble.
German industry in trouble. Job losses across sector
Germany Gov collapse
French no confidence in Barnier
Two tier Justice system in UK. Manchester Airport incident where lady officer had nose broken and other police assaulted by two assailants is one example. Still no charges brought.
@Oliver Cleary: like Jimmy Savile
@Sean Jackson: Why you like jimmy?
Keep it Quiet – BREXIT – How’s that working out. Sounds like a brilliant decision
@Tim Brennan: they were lied to and deceived. The Conservative Party told them it would stop out of control immigration, but it didn’t.
The people now know that you wont stop this out of control immigration in any sort of democratic way. Economically, they are about on par with us. So staying or leaving the EU didn’t matter that way. Their rents are high, taxes are high and income is mediocre, like us. The one thing they have on is is their car prices which are a lot lower. The people of the UK were sold a lie about brexit. They could stop illegals is they wanted to, just like Australia does at their coast. Send the dingy boast back where they came from. Instead they let them in like you would let your grandparents into your house for Christmas dinner.
Must have got a million Tories to sign but that still leaves 68 million that didn’t sign the petition.
@Chaotic State: all the “stop the boats ,we want our empire back,In my day”
When did people in some of the most deprived areas of England start voting tory?
The labour party is about as left wing as our own labour party here.
People being told there is no money by a man in a £10,000 suit .
@Chaotic State:
The maths;
48.2 million registered voters in the UK. ( only over 18 year old can vote).
Labour elected by 9.7 million
That is only 20% of the electorate.
It’s important to understand the figures.
Yes it’s the UK system.
Maybe you should spend time thinking of Friday 29th
@Chaotic State:
Keep up. 2 million + now.
Why don’t you look beyond UK and find out what is happening in France and Germany for starters.
Or even Ireland.
@Chaotic State:
Have you managed to figure out how UK Parliamentary Petitions work. Try;
@HoCpetitions
@Chaotic State:
2.8 million so far
Parliament will debate this petition
Parliament will debate this petition on 6 January 2025.
You’ll be able to watch online on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.
Urgently needed. The UK is in dire straits since that little crooked clown took over. We think things are bad here, England has become the woke laughing ground of the world.
@Marvin Dollery: and yet GBP keeps going up in value against the Euro, odd that.
@Paul Fahey: What’s odd about it? Happens all the time. It’s cyclical.
@Marvin Dollery: you’re obsessed with woke and weather. This particular petition has got nothing to do with perceived wokeness, it’s about the usual stuff – taxes, benefits, and alleged corruption
@Paul Fahey: No, it hasn’t , GBP has traded sub 1.20 since Brexit and only recently breached that due to the Euro weakness, and prior to Brexit it traded comfortably in the 1.30 to 1.40.
Odd that you think it’s going up
@Marvin Dollery: What’s woke? Go on, tell us.
@Kevin Kerr: I’ obsessed with nothing, son. This is my first time mentioning the word. Easily known you’d get “triggered” so easily.
@Paul Fahey: Ya and the UK isn’t a basket case .
@Marvin Dollery: leave my stalker alone…… All them woke lefties are still smarming from that smackdown the American voters delivered Nov 5th, lol
@Marvin Dollery: so nothing to do with the 14 years of Tory misrule then ?
@Marvin Dollery: how’s that Tory c#@k taste?
@Paul Fahey: the pound is being propped up, it’s vastly overvalued, I speak with an English foreign exchange company when buying sterling and they say it all the time
@Justin Mcnulty: I wouldn’t know at all. You’d have to ask your boyfriend. Are you enquiring or something? Sounds like it.
@Marvin Dollery: Bet you don’t even know what woke means. You’re just a parrot.
@Marvin Dollery: Please learn what woke means!
Bring back boris,comedy factor completely got out of uk politics and now that the comedian trump is back we might as well get boris as well
@Jb Walshe: Ideally you would prefer the village idiot and the leader of the country to be two different people.
@Big rob: rarely the case nowadays rob,anyway we could all do with a good laugh
@Big rob: Great comment. Touche.
@Jb Walshe: Where is the new Maggie Thatcher?
Starmer is just another Tory. Warmongering elitist, who is happy to spend billions to aid genocide in Palestine, while cutting fuel allowances for pensioners back home.
A million Tories want an election , wgaf.
@Pork Hunt:
2 million
@Pork Hunt:
To understand what is happening Google Gov.Uk Parliamentary Petitions.
2.4 million now marking Labour’s card.
How do you protest in Ireland….or is all well and fine.
Haha 29th looms…..
@Pork Hunt:
2.6 million
If you really want to understand the procedure go to
@HoCpetitions
Buyers remorse
@Oh Mammy: 1 million uk voters are hard of thinking out of a population of nearly 70 million.
@Faejit Balloobas: What a hilarious name. What’s your real name? Hahahahah
@Faejit Balloobas:
Ah Mammy Faejit is upset.
Maths not their strong point.
48.2 million registered voters
9.7 million voted Labour
That is only 20% of the electorate.
Labour Gov on the naughty step.
Stopped Winter fuel allowance.
Increased tax by the back door employers NI.
Jobs being lost
Economy tanking
Small farmers being put out of business
Ah mammy what will we do on Friday 29th
@Pat MCCormick: You are twisting the data to suit yourself. Brexit is the same. They won the vote but only a mall amount of people voted.
Their system is FPTP and that is how it works there.
@Gary Kearney:
Brexit referendum.
Turnout average 72%…over 90% in some places.
Leave 17, 410742
Remain 16, 141241
Don’t know where you get your information.
Yes UK system is First Past the Post.
That doesn’t mean my stats about the GE are wrong.
The petition is a protest about the
Labour Gov.
It seems to be upsetting the right people so?
Two-Tier Keir is now deeply unpopular despite only being in power a few months now. He has an approval rating of 23% and the Tories have already overtaken Labour in the polls for the next general election in a remarkable turn around in fortunes. At least the Tories have a proper Conservative in charge with Kemi Badenoch instead of the centre-left establishment leader Rishi Sunak as well as the Leftist clown in sheep’s clothing Boris Johnson. The most interesting thing that came out of the recent Sky News poll is that none other than Nigel Farage is the most popular political leader in the UK. They have been polling at 20% for the past three months consecutively. This seems to show that the two-party system that has dominated Britain since after World War II may be coming to an end.
@Frank O’Hara: You said in your first few sentences, a few months. How many signatires are from overseas?
@Brian D’Arcy: It doesn’t matter. There have been many examples of governments that have fallen within a few months of getting into power because of the their sheer unpopularity. Thanks to Starmer’s sheer unpopularity, Labour have blown a nearly 15 point lead in the polls against the Tories and are now 2 points behind which is unheard of in a relatively short period of time.
@Brian D’Arcy: Russian bots and Elon musk bots mainly
@Justin Mcnulty: That’s a wild presumption which has no sort of merit. What’s your proof that “Russian bots” and “Elon Musk bots” are driving this petition? Also, Elon Musk runs a bot farm now? I thought he would be too busy making the world a better place with all of his excellent innovative inventions.
@Frank O’Hara: “Too busy making the world a better place” .. hilarious.
@Pablo: What have you done which is comparable to Musk? He helped create so many wonderful inventions and companies. He created Tesla, which provides innovative electric cars that harnessed the power of lithium ion batteries for the first time, allowing for range of over 200km which was historic. He created Starlink, which helps poor people connect to the internet. He created PayPal, which revolutionised the world of money by allowing people to engage in digital money transfers for the first time. He created SpaceX, which builds rockets and flies them into space for 1/10th of the cost of NASA and has replaced them as the main space exploration body in the world. I’m guessing that you haven’t done anything close to that so please pipe down punk.
@Justin Mcnulty:
If you bother to read the terms of the petition…..it is run by Parliament so policed.
Call a General Election
Only British citizens or UK residents have the right to sign
2.2 million now.
@Brian D’Arcy:
Brian the petition is an Official Parliamentary Petition. Check it out.
It’s a procedure introduced by Blair.
( I’d guess Starmer will scrap the procedure when he gets a chance)
Call a General Election
Only British citizens or UK residents have the right to sign
The fourth day and at 2.4 million now and upsetting alot of people.
Of course it’s a protest….marking Labour’s card on their abysmal performance so far.
( the rejoin EU 6 petition million signature took 6 months to reach that number)
@Brian D’Arcy:
This petition is run by UK Government and Parliament. Google if you want to find out the procedure.
Can be signed by British Citizens and UK residents.
Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate.
2.5 million signatories so far.
It’s a protest at the shambles Labour have created in the last 5 months.
Well the Conservatives were incompetent baboons… thet left the economy in the sewer… cant blame Labour for that.. pig in a poke…
So another vote on Brexit 5 years later is ignoring the people’s voice but another election 3 months later is fine. Right wing logic
@FoxyBoiiYT: That’s the beauty of it. The right are using the left logic against them.
How many people are living in the UK.
@Daniel Roche: You mean – how many people in the UK can a petition reach.
@Marvin Dollery:
48 million registered voters.
This is a Parliamentary Petition….system introduced by Blair.
Of the 48 million 9.7 million voted for this Government.
The petition now at 2.4 million is a protest to mark Labour’s card ….re their abysmal performance so far
No need for election here, the mighty Fianna Fail will win, always
@Fintan Pox: your gone after next week
@Alan Moloney:
Keep dreaming.
4 times that signed the petition to overturn Brexit. This one will be ignored also.
@john murray:
The petition to overturn ( democracy) Brexit gained 6 million names over 6 months.
This petition 2.5 million in 4 days. It is a protest over the shambles Labour have created and to mark Labour’s card.
CBI the latest organisation to say..
‘Business anger on the increase in national insurance contributions, has been branded a “jobs tax”’
Petition has gained publicity and embarrassed Starmer so time not wasted.
Labour policy’s are thing of the past they don’t serve the working man anymore, in our country it’s the same they are flogging a dead horse. Black tie economy now.
The Tories taking the loss well then… :-D
The UK is doomed.
@Alex: Doubt it.
Pointless waste of time. Labour have five years to get things on an even keel. I’d imagine their strategy is to inflict maximum pain in the short term with the hope that the corner will be turned a year or two out from the election.
They can sign whatever they like. It wont make a whit of difference. Labour have huge parliamentary majority and can bin it.
@Paul whitehead:
Labour cannot bin it. Its an official procedure.
UK Parliament Petitions
Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate
2.5 million so far.
It’s not going to happen for at least four years.
No more pain in the ho!e comedy coming from the U.K. . They electorate in the Un-United Kingdom were told that Brexit will bite them hard and now it is biting like a mouse trap stuck on your pinky toe. Besides who are they going to back to? The Turbulent Tories broke the U.K. and U.K. Labour are like the crowd here LIEBOUR
@Tommy: People tell me the problems from brexit are horrific for them.
@Gary Kearney:
What examples have people told you?
@Gary Kearney:
So no evidence ?
Ridiculous. Obviously in a democracy there will be winners and losers, you can’t just turn around a few weeks later, and say, oh, my team lost, can we have a replay.
Whoever addresses the uncontrolled immigration of those who hate the West, and the dangerous rise of Islamic demands and threats of those already in the U.K., will win the people’s vote.
One million out of 25 or 30 million. Labour don’t have to worry about the super rich
@Bat Collins:
It’s a pity not to know the stats.
48.2 million registered voters in UK.
Of those 9.7 million voted Labour.
That is just 20%
Yes that’s the UK system.
The new Government have so far only delivered what was NOY in their manifesto.
Hence 2+ million sign the petition in 3 days.
It won’t achieve a new GE but will send Labour a message..must do better.
@Bat Collins:
See
@HoCpetitions
To see how Parliament deals with this.
Tony Blair introduced the Petitions procedure. I bet Sir Kier would love to scrap it.
A blue print for if SF go into government.
Not a whisper of this on the BBC website. Very suspect.
@Always Question:
You are right to question the BBC non reporting.
They have finally mentioned it today.
They report it has over 100000 signatures……..that’s the figure requiring Parliament to address.
The Petition is actually at 2.3 million but the BBC don’t want folk to know that.
Illustrates where the BBC are at now.
have your say