Man with no access to TV in his own home wins licence case

A separated Clare man who has no access to the television in his own home has emerged victorious in his TV licence battle with An Post — but he won’t be telling his ex-wife.

Liam McKee yesterday escaped a fine of up to €1,000 after Judge Patrick Durcan dismissed the case taken against him by An Post for having no TV licence, after hearing that the father of four grown-up children has no access to the TV at his own home.

Mr McKee shares his home in Shannon, with his ex-wife and two of their children. He yesterday agreed in court with his solicitor, Daragh Hassett, that, in the division of the home, he has no access to the TV.

At Ennis District Court, Mr Hassett said Mr McKee — a brother of Clare County Councillor Mike McKee — had advised his ex-wife to get the TV licence in her own name, but she had not done so yet.

Questioning the unusual arrangements at the McKee household, Judge Durcan asked Mr McKee: “What happens if there is a match on and you want to see it on the television?”

Mr McKee said: “I go down the road to where my mother lives and watch it there.”

Mr McKee told the judge that the TV is located in the sitting room of the house and Judge Durcan asked: “And you have no access to the sitting room at all?”

Mr McKee replied: “It’s, it’s... very difficult.”

Aisling Casey, for An Post, asked Mr McKee if the TV was the only one in the house or did he have one in his bedroom. Mr McKee said it was the only working TV but that there were a couple of broken ones in the home as well.

After hearing evidence yesterday, Judge Durcan dismissed the case.

Speaking afterwards, Mr McKee said: “I’m delighted. I’m unemployed so if a fine was imposed, it would have been hard.”

Asked would he be telling his ex-wife about the court result, Mr McKee replied: “No.”

He said there is little communication between the two. Asked what it was like to share a home with a separated spouse, he said: “It is not fun.”

Mr McKee confessed that he isn’t a great fan of TV anyway, and that the last soap he watched was the 1980s American series Dallas.