The number of people being taken to court for not holding a TV licence has dropped sharply, despite the wave of evasion set off by the RTÉ payments controversy.
Raising fresh questions over the effectiveness of the TV funding regime, new figures show enforcement reduced after licence sales collapsed in the wake of the affair.
An Post, the collector of the annual €160 charge, changed procedures at the height of the controversy because licence inspectors were being subjected to “abuse and harassment”. The process has since returned to normal.
The revelation of undeclared payments to host Ryan Tubridy two years ago this week triggered a full-blown crisis for RTÉ over lavish corporate hospitality, a failed musical and large exit payments for departing executives.
This led to more than 100,000 people refusing to renew their TV licence, prompting a cash crunch at RTÉ that necessitated a government bailout for the broadcaster to avoid insolvency.
There were 947,924 licence sales in 2022, the year before controversy. But renewals collapsed once the disclosures started, with only 824,278 sales in 2023. There was another drop last year, to 792,243 sales.
Under the system set up to increase enforcement and deter non-compliance, An Post can bring people to court for licence fee evasion. The latest figures show a decline in enforcement in the year of the scandal and the following year.
In 2022, the company made 13,709 summons applications for non-payment and pursued 7,263 court cases. There were 13,198 summons applications and 6,555 court cases in 2023. This fell to 12,229 summons applications and 5,392 court cases last year.
“It was the case that inspectors on the doors were taking quite an amount of abuse and harassment,” An Post said.
“Certainly we had to amend inspection activity during the period of the RTÉ issue – and there was a cohort of the customer base that was unwilling to take out or renew TV licences for that same reason.
“But we have seen that change and many of those customers have returned to being fully complaint and the inspection campaign has returned to normal.”
Asked whether Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan believed the licence and enforcement system was working, his department said it was “critically important” that households pay the fee.
“It is not only required by law. It underpins availability of public service content which is of great importance to our democracy and society,” a department spokesperson said.
The then government last year resolved to retain the licence fee but asked officials to examine “potential enhancements”.
The drop in licence sales continues this year, with 329,956 sold as of the week ending June 6th, down from 335,400 in the comparable a year earlier period.
An Post did not provide enforcement data for this year, but it said the drop in prosecutions “from 2023, through 2024 to 2025” followed procedural changes allowing inspectors to leave cards rather than calling into addresses.
Prosecution was always a last resort, the company said.
“The emphasis is on encouraging and reminding householders and business people to pay their fair share and of their legal and civic duty to do so. Only when a long series of postal reminders and house calls fail to result in a purchase or renewal does a case move to prosecution.”
More than 43 per cent of the An Post database comprises “addresses entitled to free TV licences and addresses listed as having ‘No TV’.”
