The Government has proposed a number of changes to RTÉ's use of the licence fee and its funding of TG4 in an attempt to end a European Commission competition inquiry.
The inquiry was prompted by a complaint from TV3, which alleged that the national broadcaster was using licence fee income for commercial advantage, rather than just for filling its public service obligations.
Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey said the commission was "examining [ the Government's] response to see if it adequately addresses its concerns.
"If the outcome of the procedure requires legislative changes, I will bring such changes forward in the context of the proposed Broadcasting Bill," he told Mr Bernard Durkan, Fine Gael's communications spokesman, in a Dáil written reply.
Last night, informed sources indicated that the Government had put forward a number of possible options. "It is more like saying, 'what if we did this, would that deal with your concerns'?" one told The Irish Times.
The commission's competition directorate general sent a 50-page report to the Department of Communications on March 3rd following a preliminary investigation.
The Government, it said then, should define RTÉ's public service obligations precisely and its use of the licence fee should be independently monitored.
RTÉ received more than €160 million last year from the licence fee, helped by Government-ordered increases and a steady rise in the number of licences because of the building boom.
It spends €12 million on programming for the Irish language station, while TG4 also receives more than €21 million in direct State aid.
Last year, the commission ruled that Denmark's TV2 public broadcaster had received €84.4 million too much State aid to cover its public service obligations and ordered the money to be repaid.
"As a general rule, state financing of public service tasks will not be prohibited under the state aid rules as long as the public financing is proportionate to the net cost of providing the public service," the commission said at the time.
Mr Dempsey has acknowledged that the commission wants clarity brought to RTÉ's public service role and its internal accounting.
