Decision on TV licence hike due in weeks

TELEVISION viewers will learn within weeks if their annual licence is to rise by €7 to €165 to keep pace with inflation.

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan is weighing up whether RTÉ deserves the fifth successive rise in as many years to cover inflation at 4.6%. The current fee is €158.

The possible rise comes after independent Mayo TD Beverley Flynn reached a €1.25 million settlement with RTÉ in July after running up €2.84m in costs in her failed libel action against the broadcaster.

Mr Ryan is considering a report from consultants Indecon into how well RTÉ has performed against its pledges on programming, management costs and balancing the books.

If the full amount is approved, then the cost of a licence will have risen from €107 in 2002 to €165, a hike of 54% in just five years.

“Inflation is currently running at around 5%, but the minister could decide to give us less or even nothing at all,” said a senior RTÉ spokesman yesterday.

“We don’t know what the figure will be yet and the decision could take a matter of weeks or months as it’s really up to the Government.”

Of RTÉ’s annual spending of €389m, about €170m comes from the licence fee, €177m from advertising and sponsorship, and the rest from other sources of income.

At €158 a time, Ireland’s licence fee is moderate compared to many European countries — yet the country has one of the worst rates of licence-dodging of many public service broadcasting nations.

Ireland’s evasion rate is about 15% of all homes and businesses, while Austria’s is 4%, even though its licence fee is an eye-watering €238.

In Italy, where the fee is just €100, evasion rates are 25% while in Japan the rate is 20%, despite the fee being about the same as the Italian cost.

German evasion rates are 6%, despite the licence costing €202 and the rate is 11% in Norway, where the annual fee is €240.

In Britain and the North, where the licence fee costs stg£135 (€195) the evasion rate is just shy of 5%, according to European Broadcasting Union figures.

Since 2003, more than 176 people have been imprisoned in Ireland for failing to pay what they owe to RTÉ, with the rest liable for fines of up to €1,269.74 a time.

Last year An Post — which collects the licence fee — issued 12,303 court summons for non-payment of television licences while this year’s figures are understood to be at the same level. The year before, An Post issued 9,849 summons, while 13,024 were sent out in 2004 to get evaders to pay up.

RTÉ said the description of the permit as a television licence fee was misleading as the money also went to fund radio stations and the broadcaster’s orchestra among other schemes.

The Government’s Department for Communications said a decision on the television licence would be made within weeks.