Minister rejects Opposition calls to change TV licence system

ALTERNATIVES TO the television licence fee have to be considered with “caution and due diligence”, Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has said, rejecting a Fine Gael call to change a system that is “inefficient”, and “plagued by evasion”.

Fine Gael communications spokesman Simon Coveney said consideration should be given to the introduction of a household levy, similar to the business levy that applies to pubs and hotels.

Mr Ryan said the licence fee system has served well despite its “limitations” and changing it is not a priority. The priority, he said, is the introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and to ensure broadband is available across the country.

He was speaking in the final stages of debate on the Broadcasting Bill 2008, which was passed in the Dáil yesterday. It has been subjected to extensive debate and significant change during its lengthy passage through the Oireachtas. The Bill now returns to the Seanad to deal with final amendments from the Dáil. It provides for the change from analogue to digital television, to meet the 2012 switch-over deadline.

The Bill consolidates almost 50 years of broadcasting legislation, makes changes to deal with a massively diversified industry and with significant technological developments. It also creates the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), an overarching body to regulate broadcasters, which takes over the functions of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission and the RTÉ Authority.

Under the legislation, TDs and Senators will have a role in a number of appointments to the new authority through recommendations to the Oireachtas Communications Committee. Other provisions in the legislation allow for the creation of an Irish film channel and an Oireachtas channel, new codes and rules for broadcasting, including advertising aimed at children, along with substantial fines for breaches. The Bill also includes measures to prevent people going to jail for non-payment of the TV licence. During the debate Mr Coveney proposed a review of the TV licence system, to be completed within 12 months.

He said it was “madness” that it cost €12 million to collect €200 million in licence fees. “It is inappropriate, bad value for money, ineffective and outdated to fund public service broadcasting to the tune of more than €200 million a year by attaching an obligation to have a licence for every TV in the country.

“We have an army of people knocking on doors, checking under beds for TVs and asking people whether they have licences.” He said it cost the State a “great deal of money to go through the courts system” and it was also “increasingly difficult to define what a television is”.

Mobile phones, PCs with a broadband connection and laptops with TV cards will be exempted from requirement to pay the licence fee.

Labour spokeswoman Liz McManus described the current system as antiquated, pointing out that 20 per cent of TV owners did not pay the licence fee at all. “There are advertisements that inform us that 18,000 households are visited every month. I don’t believe that for a minute.”

Mr Ryan said that in the future “we may have to move away from the TV licence as the basis for the funding of public service broadcasting” but the current system “has served us well, despite its limitations” and “according to both RTÉ and our nearest neighbours, the UK it is still the best way of collecting funds”.