Time to collect

About 9,000 black and white TV licences were issued this year, according to An Post, which is responsible for collecting the licence fee under contract to the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands.

Although the number of "monochrome" licences in circulation represents a tiny proportion of the more than one million TV licences paid for, this year it comes as no surprise to hear that RTE will be pressing the Government to abolish them as soon as possible.

In 1998, An Post charged a fee of £7.47 million for collecting 65 million licences. If a licence fee increase is approved, it is likely that the company will seek an increase its fee. However, RTE is on record as stating that it would like the contract for collecting the licence fee to be put out to tender.

RTE public affairs manager Deirdre Henchy says that more could be done to reduce TV licence evasion from its current level of 13 per cent to 8 per cent, which would mean an extra £4 million for RTE.

"An Post has addressed our concerns to some degree, but it's an ongoing issue, unfortunately," she says.

However, An Post spokesman John Foley says that putting the contract out to tender would be a "disaster". He says that no other organisation has the same infrastructure in place to organise the collection. He adds that the company has exceeded its agreed targets with RTE for licence fee collection every year for the past 10 years.

Ever wondered how you're being counted? Every retailer of TVs is obliged to sendthe name and address of the purchaser to An Post. If you ever bought a TV licence in the past, you are on file. There are about 1,000 court prosecutions for TV licence evasion each year throughout the State.

Since October this year, anyone over 75 can get a free TV licence (regardless of income) and if you are over 65, you may qualify for a free licence if you are receiving any social welfare pension or disability allowance.

So what about those 9,000 monochrome licences? Well, if you had the brass neck to apply for one, you shouldn't be too surprised if you hear the tap, tap, tap of an inspector at the door, wishing to verify that you still swear by that black and white portable which you inherited from a relative back in 1983.