Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle; it is People Before Profit. Sixty people per day are now being prosecuted for not paying the TV licence. More than 13,00 people were brought to court last year and, if convicted, had to pay a fine of €1,000 or face a jail term. This is in the context of what is now a majority of eligible people refusing to pay the TV licence. It is an unjust, regressive tax that costs €160 for the richest family and €160 for the poorest eligible family. It was even reported at the weekend that the Taoiseach is in favour of scrapping this regressive tax and replacing it with direct Exchequer funding. We published our alternative model of RTÉ for the people and for how the big social media giants can be taxed. At the very least, will the Taoiseach agree at this point that there needs to be an amnesty? We have to stop dragging people through court for refusing to pay this unjust tax. There needs to be a commitment to scrap the TV licence.

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