A spokeswoman for RTE said that the station decided to make programmes freely available to "allow Irish people living abroad to access the same programmes via the web".

However, 3 Ireland, one of the companies that is opposing plans to expand the television licence fee to cover computers and mobile phones, said it was concerned.

"The domestic domestic Irish consumer should not be subsidising channels abroad.

Worldwide access to RTE is great news but the channels should pay for themselves (through advertising etc) so people who live in Ireland aren't footing the bill, " a spokeswoman said.

RTE has claimed, however, that the internet download service is not funded using television licence fees rather that it was provided by its RTE Publishing division, which received no public funding.

However, some of the programming available on the internet service, such as news bulletins and current affairs documentaries, were funded using the licence fee.

By contrast, the BBC has developed a strict policy where non-licence fee payers from outside Britain cannot download video and audio clips from its website. A notice on its website states that: "broadband content is expensive for the BBC to stream, so we have to give priority to people within the UK, who ultimately bear the cost of us doing this through their licence fee".

However, Sean O'Siochru, an international media consultant and chairman of Dublin Community Television, said that RTE's stance was admirable. "I think that providing a general service to the Irish abroad is a valuable addon to its public service remit, " he said. "By providing the programming to others via the internet, you are not incurring any additional costs."