TV licence fee ‘should be €175 per year’ – Dee Forbes

The television licence fee should be €175 in line with inflation, RTÉ’s director general Dee Forbes has said.

Ms Forbes told an Oireachtas committee on communications that the TV licence fee is in need of reform and modernisation and the current charge does not reflect changes to the media landscape.

Ireland has one of the highest licence fee evasion rates in Europe and Ms Forbes is also calling for a reform of the way in which it is collected.

“The reason we keep advocating for reform is because there has been no reform. The current uncertainty around the TV licence fee system both in its current performance and how and when it might be reformed are making it almost impossible for us at RTÉ and those reliant on us to plan for the next year ahead, let alone the next five years as is being expected by our regulator and our department,” she said.

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“The cost of licence fee has not been increased in a decade and this is unlike virtually any other public or private utility. To keep pace with inflation, stamps have increased in price, newspapers have increased in price, pay TV subscriptions, health insurance, phonebills, hospital fees, electricity, broadband, bus fares. Almost everything you can think of; so why not the TV licence?” she said.

Watching and listening

Ms Forbes said that during 2016 Irish adults spent an hour on average watching RTÉ television and an additional hour listening to RTÉ radio every day.

“Currently, at €160 the licence fee costs Irish households 44 cent per day. The most vulnerable in this country have the licence paid through the household benefits package.

“If the TV licence fee had kept in pace with inflation since it was last raised as it was supposed to do in line with legislation, the TV licence fee would be €175 per household per year of 47 cent per day; just over a quarter of the cost of a national broadsheet newspaper per day,” she said.

Ms Forbes said this increase alone would bring in an additional €15 million to RTÉ and to people working in the independent television production sector.

Last month, the Government said it is to appoint a “new agent” to collect television licence fees in an attempt recoup some of the estimated €40 million a year that is currently going unpaid.