Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan has insisted he has “no notion” of abolishing the TV licence fee or replacing it with a tax on big tech companies.
Mr O’Donovan was responding in the Dáil to People Before Profit (PBP) TD Paul Murphy, who described the licence fee as a “regressive, unjust tax” where the richest and poorest households pay the same €160 fee.
Mr Murphy said increasing numbers are “boycotting” the licence as he asked the Minister to instead tax the social media and technology giants to fund public service broadcasting.
“No, I won’t, so that’s the end of that,” said Mr O’Donovan. “I have no notion of doing it. This is a fund that’s in place to support RTÉ and public service broadcasters.”
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It also supports the “sound and vision” sectors, he said.
“I have no intention of replacing it and I have no intention of going down a cul-de-sac that Deputy Murphy would like us to do, which is a road to nowhere for RTÉ and everybody associated with broadcasting,” the Minister said. “So the short answer is no.”
Mr Murphy said the “tax is deeply unpopular and licence sales have plummeted”.
He said 950,000 paid in 2022. That figure dropped to 825,000 in 2023 and to 790,000 in 2024.
Mr Murphy said that was a fall of more than 155,000 households “who are refusing to pay either in protest or because they cannot afford to pay this regressive flat tax, which takes no account of ability to pay”.
[ Why I stopped paying my TV licence fee: ‘The whole model is broken’Opens in new window ]
The Minister replied that “the licence fee is not a tax. I don’t see references to that anywhere in the legislation”.
Describing it as an “important funding mechanism for RTÉ,” Mr O’Donovan said Mr Murphy seems “to think that there’s a phantom entity out there that can pay for everything”.
Mr Murphy said the licence accounted for just more than a third of funding for public service broadcasting.
He said his party’s proposals included a “radical plan” to increase funding for public service broadcasting by taxing big tech corporations.
Mr Murphy said they had a “parasitical role” in journalism, not creating content but getting most of the advertising from it and it “clearly makes sense to allow them to pay”.
“I’ll continue to support those who refuse to pay the TV licence, and I warn you that that number is increasing,” he said, adding that the number of prosecutions was also dropping.
“You’re entitled to start whatever campaign it is you want to start to undermine another public service,” Mr O’Donovan replied. “I don’t support it… and I don’t think most people do either.”
He said if Mr Murphy gets an opportunity to be in government, he will “actually see that there’s more to running a public service than a megaphone”.
