Sir, – Regarding “Revenue from TV licence fees falls by €1.3m after RTÉ controversy” (News, July 19th), residents in Ireland are mandated by law to pay an annual fee if they wish to own a television. This fee is essentially a tax to raise money to support RTÉ's operations. The taxpayers/licence-fee payers, however, have little to no control over how the money is used. They have no control over who is in RTÉ's management. They have no control over how such management operates. They have no control over what programmes appear on RTÉ, nor the contents of these programmes – nor the considerable number of repeats. They had no control over key sporting events being handed over to GAAGO. At least in the national government the taxpayer has some say in selecting the management and how the budget funds are used. Not so with RTÉ. The public service broadcast operations need to be brought under more direct public control. – Yours, etc,
DAN DONOVAN,
Dungarvan,
Co Waterford.
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Sir, – People in journalism and politicians might need RTÉ. I certainly don’t and I resent being forced to pay for something I don’t use. Let your friends in Dáil Éireann finance their public service broadcaster from the Lotto. – Yours, etc,
EDWARD LEE,
Cork.
