Sir, - In view of the increase in television licence-fees announced yesterday I write to express concern on a related matter which I sincerely hope will gather some momentum in the coming months.
As a television licence-payer I have no quarrel with the fee, or even with the increase RTE have been given, but I do take exception to having to pay a licence fee for a service I cannot hope to receive! Like many others in this country, and particularly in the Limerick area, I have fought for years with cable operators in the hope I could get an acceptable level of TV reception and support services.
Living in the city, you would imagine there would be no such difficulty. The reality, however, is that in recent months I abandoned all hope of ever getting the kind of signal or service that I felt I should get for my money so I defected to the Sky digital service.
My TV reception is perfect, - but I'm paying a licence fee to the State and I cannot receive any of the national TV or radio channels on satellite! Can I ask why? As a licence-payer am I not entitled to insist that RTE provide me with the service which I and many other Sky digital viewers are paying for?
I understand that in Britain some legal moves by marginalised Sky viewers resulted in the BBC having to strike a deal with Sky so that its signal could be received by all licence-payers there. The State can only argue, "If you have a television you must have a TV licence", if it has ensured that its citizens can access the national channels through all types of TV reception equipment.
I wonder how much longer it will be before a merry band of Irish Sky subscribers decide to withhold the licence fee. - Yours, etc.,
P. Irwin, Limerick.