TV licence fee to be retained but collection will be overhauled, Cabinet to agree

The TV licence fee will not be abolished but the collection and enforcement of the charge will be overhauled, the Cabinet is expected to agree on Tuesday.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister for Media Catherine Martin will bring a joint memo to Cabinet arising from a report by the Future of Media Commission, which will also be published.

As expected, the Government will reject a recommendation from the commission that the €160 annual fee be scrapped and replaced with direct exchequer funding for RTÉ.

RTÉ brings in €200 million a year in licence-fee income, though the State broadcaster has previously complained that the rate of evasion and avoidance costs it huge sums every year. Earlier this year, the broadcaster increased to €65 million its estimate of the public broadcasting funding “lost” each year as a result of licence-fee evasion and the growing number of “no TV” households that are ineligible to pay the charge.

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The Future of Media Commission was established by the government in September 2020, and was tasked with developing recommendations on sustainable public funding and other supports to ensure media in Ireland remains viable. The commission was also asked to make specific recommendations in relation to RTÉ's financing.

Mr Martin and Ms Martin will ask Ministers to agree a decision to maintain, but overhaul, the licence fee. Sources said this will involve a “reformed funding model, building on the existing revenue stream from the direct sale of TV licences”.

A technical working group is to be established to look at what reforms of the current TV licence system might be needed. This group will look at liability, the licence fee database, collection and enforcement.

A source said the licence fee will also be “updated to the way people actually consume media now, and collection needs to be strengthened”.

The technical group will report back later this year.

“The intention would be to strengthen the collection and enforcement so the amounts coming in increase. They would be future-proofed, such that revenues will increase as housing stock increases. A link would be maintained between the creation and consumption of public service media content. This would be all done after a further examination of the potential revenue generation capacity of the TV licence system,” a Government source said.

The commission, which was chaired by Prof Brian MacCraith, examined the main funding models in use, such as a licence fee, taxation-based funding and household charge models. It is understood that it noted that all models had their own specific challenges. For example, only two jurisdictions in Europe use the household charge model, Germany and Switzerland.