The Irish Times has reported that Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte has stated that TV licence evasion will now be tackled more stringently. The Cabinet has agreed to introduce a law that permits An Post to access Sky and UPC subscription data that compares licence fee payers against a list of households and businesses with cable or satellite TV services. The €160 yearly fee is collected by An Post.
Mr Rabitte stated, “Given the ComReg estimate that over 73% of ‘TV households’ have such services, this measure should significantly reduce the level of evasion. Licence fee evasion is an ongoing scourge. While in the nature of things it is difficult to be exact, we estimate that it is running at over 15%, which is more than three times the rate in our nearest neighbour.”
“A short piece of legislation is needed in order to implement this proposal, so as to ensure compliance with data protection concerns,” he said, assuring that “An Post will have access to the information solely for its statutory functions in relation to licence fee collection and the commercial confidentially of the information will have to be safeguarded.”
The Data Protection Commissioner’s office has said the legislation when enacted would result in putting aside the consent requirements which would otherwise apply under data protection law. The Department will thus consult with the office when the legislation is being drafted.
Mr Rabbitte said he hoped the legislation could be passed and in force by the end of this year and that it would have an immediate impact on RTÉ revenues. He estimated €25 to €30 million of potential revenue was lost annually to RTÉ due to licence evasion. The Government provides a grant annually to RTÉ which is funded by the television licence fee, and the broadcaster has responsibilities to deliver public service programmes.
RTÉ recently reported that the broadcaster managed to break even last year.
Income from the TV licence amounts to some €220 million a year. The bulk of the money, around €180 million, goes to RTÉ, with the rest distributed between TG4 and independent productions funded through the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). The current level of licence fee evasion in Ireland is around 16%, which is higher than in Britain.
