Hotels oppose new public service broadcasting charge

Hotels have come out strongly against the proposed new public service broadcasting charge, calling it an indirect form of tourism taxation for guests.

The comments came after Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte said the new charge would address the current “serious anomaly” whereby large hotels with many rooms only pay for a single TV licence while the owner of a group of holiday cottages requires a licence for each property.

Irish Hotels Federation chief executive Tim Fenn said an increase in the TV licence fee paid by hoteliers would be a further cost on an over-burdened sector. “The imposition of an additional charge for customers to view a television in their hotel room would raise operating costs at a time when hotels are struggling to break even,” he said.

“In order to survive, hotels have had to reduce prices and implement severe cost cutting measures. Any additional costs would put further pressure on businesses,” he added.

Earlier this year a value for money review identified “certain inequities” whereby some businesses met the legal requirement of buying a licence but contributed much less to the funding of public service broadcasting than individuals or families.

The review recommended businesses be categorised into “micro, small, medium-sized and above enterprises and charged different levels in order to avoid a disproportionate burden being placed on very small businesses and sole traders etc”.

The proposed new system is device-independent, i.e. it no longer relates to a particular device (like a television) or how many of those devices a person or household possesses. Instead the charge will simply apply to all households and businesses in the State, with a number of exemptions.

The Department of Communications yesterday said the means by which hotels and other businesses might be charged has yet to be worked out.

“The intention at this point is that the charge to be applied under the proposed new system should be more equitable in that it will relate to the size of the business, although the precise manner in which this will be determined has yet to be finalised,” a spokesman said.