We need public service broadcasting but others must get their fair share

THE phrase “can’t pay, won’t pay” is one that we are hearing more often in public discourse and which we can expect to hear far more often over the next year as property and water taxes and the broadcasting charge are added to the rank of annual payments expected of citizens.

The “broadcasting charge” is not a new one, unlike the hated new incoming property and water taxes, but merely a renaming of the TV licence. Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has indicated that it won’t be any more expensive than the existing €160 annual levy, so it shouldn’t have an adverse effect on the majority of people.

That won’t make it any more acceptable to some people though. Nor will the reason for its implementation: to ensure funds for the provision of public service broadcasting. The argument at present is that enough money is not being collected. It’s reckoned that about 19% of eligible households don’t pay the charge. In some cases it is a case of “can’t pay” but in many it may be a case of “won’t pay”.