Lifetime TV licences are to be issued to people entitled to a free licence, under a new scheme from the Department of Communications and the Department of Social Welfare.
Recipients of the Households Benefits Package will no longer have to present their award notice at a post office to receive their free licence but will have the lifetime licence issued to them automatically.
"This initiative will benefit 300,000 existing social welfare customers, with a further 40,000 people benefiting each year," the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, said. "It is an excellent example of government agencies co-operating to provide better services to their customers."
The new licence would increase the efficiency of licence fee collection and cut the cost of administering free licences, the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, said. Free licences are available to those over 66 years who receive a social welfare payment or who satisfy a means test, all people over 70 and carers of the disabled.