An Post out of pocket over TV licences

Chasing down TV licences is costing An Post more than it collects from the fees, it emerged today.

The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the State company was paid €10.5m by the Communications Department for the service in 2003, but it incurred costs of €11m.

The money goes towards employing door-to-door inspectors and 88 staff who sell the licences, maintain a database of dodgers, issue reminder and warning notices, and bring court prosecutions for non-payment.

PAC chairman Michael Noonan said: “It sounds a bit comical to say it costs An Post more than it actually makes, but that is the situation.”

The information came from the PAC’s fourth interim findings on the 2002 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The report found that licence-dodgers fell from 16% in 1998 to 11.5% in 2002.

The PAC recommended that An Post should look at successful licence collection systems in other countries and that larger fines should be levied on evaders.

The report also found that financial mismanagement of local authority housing loans by Kilkenny County Council from the late 1980s to 1994 led to a deficit of 10 million euro (£6.15 million) which impacted on the quality of services the council could provide.

The committee advised the Environment Department to “take advantage of the new accounting systems in local authorities to improve its oversight of local finances”.

The PAC also looked at the introduction of a computerised forestry inventory and planning system at the Natural Resources Department.

The total cost of the system was 300% more than the original estimate.

Of the five components of the system, only one had been delivered at the time of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s audit and two were cancelled.

The PAC report covered activities at the Departments of Communications; Marine and Natural Resources; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Office of Public Works and Environmental Protection Agency.