Scrap RTÉ and make licence fee worth it

The comments made by Minister Pat Rabbitte concerning the broadcasting charge are insulting to the intelligence, to put it mildly.

First of all, from where does he derive the figure of €25m in evasion? That would be 156,250 homes evading the TV licence, by the way. Where are the feared TV-licence inspector bogeymen that we were assured would catch all evaders?

If they know who they are, why haven’t the inspectors already paid a visit to all homes not paying a licence (issuing fines, etc) or are they the latest silent victims of the cutbacks? What about households that simply do not have a TV and do not access such content any other way or do not think the so-called national broadcaster worth watching?

The original purpose of the licence fee was to help RTÉ produce quality programs in the national interest, which it hardly does anymore. It also garners revenue from advertising and sponsorship and if it needs to save money it could start by cutting the inflated salaries of its top presenters and executives. In fact, RTÉ should be scrapped and a public broadcasting service, along the lines of the one in the USA set up instead, with far greater access (as with the PBS) for the public to use it as a platform. That at least would be worth paying a licence fee towards. Incidentally, the TV licence fee in Germany is €35 a year.

In the meantime, it would be a lot more honest if the Government were simply to name all new taxes and charges “Bailout Tax A” “Bailout Tax B” and so on and admit this money will one way or another find its way into paying back our bailout loans.

It looks like the Irish get ripped off in boom times and bust times.

Nick Folley

Ardcarrig

Carrigaline

Co Cork