Man avoids licence fee fine because TV on other side of house

A separated Co Clare man, who has no access to the TV in his own home, has won his TV licence battle with An Post, but he won't be telling his wife.

Liam McKee escaped a fine of up to €1,000 after Judge Patrick Durcan dismissed the prosecution being taken by An Post against him for no TV licence after hearing that he has no access to the TV in his Shannon home.

Mr McKee, a father or four grown-up children, shares his home at Cronan Gardens, Shannon, with his separated wife and two of their children. The court heard that in the division of the home, Mr McKee has no access to the TV.

At Ennis District Court, solicitor Daragh Hassett, said Mr McKee has advised his wife to get the TV licence in her own name, but she has not done so.

Questioning the unusual domestic 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?”

In response, 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 sittingroom of the house and Judge Durcan asked: “And you have no access to the sitting room at all?”

In reply, Mr McKee said: “It’s, it’s . . . very difficult.”

Solicitor Aisling Casey, for An Post, asked Mr McKee if the TV the only one in the house and Mr McKee said it was only working TV and there were a couple of broken ones in the home as well.

The case initially came before Ennis District Court in October when Mr McKee was unavailable due to ill-health and Judge Durcan ordered he appear before court today to outline why he didn’t pay the €160 for the TV licence.

After hearing Mr McKee’s evidence, Judge Durcan said: “I will dismiss.”

Speaking outside court after the outcome, 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 the court result to his separated wife, Mr McKee replied: “No.”

He said that there is very little communication between the two saying “It is ‘yes-no’ most of the time.”

Asked what it was like to share a home with a separated spouse, Mr McKee said: “It is not fun.”

Mr McKee said that after the publicity surrounding the previous time the case came to court, “she just gave out to me because of all the publicity and people saying it to her.

“It didn’t make things any easier.”

He said that it is now up to his wife to get a TV licence. “Otherwise if she doesn’t, she could find herself up in court.”

An unemployed computer engineer, Mr McKee said that he is not working at the moment after suffering “a couple of brain seizures”, stating that “the stress of the case didn’t help with the worry and all of that”.

Mr McKee said he isn't a great fan of TV anyway. He said that the last soap opera he watched was 1980s US soap, Dallas.

“I mainly watch news, current affairs and documentaries. I don’t watch dramas. I can watch those online at home because we have broadband. I can stream whatever I want to watch,” he said.

Mr McKee said that he could go into the family’s sittingroom and watch TV “but the atmosphere isn’t good”.