Revenue collection of broadcast fee blocked by Rabbitte

Former minister for communications Pat Rabbitte rejected a proposal from civil servants suggesting the Revenue Commissioners collect the new broadcasting charge in the same way as property tax.

Revenue was amenable to collecting the public service broadcasting charge, which will replace the TV licence fee next year, on the same basis as the local property tax; from every household in the country and on a single liability date.

Revenue’s database of properties would have been expected to address the high evasion rate for paying TV licence fees, estimated at 15 per cent. This has led to a revenue shortfall of over €25 million a year.

It is understood Mr Rabbitte turned down the proposal on the basis that it would have been viewed as another property tax and portrayed by the Opposition as such. That could have had “disastrous” consequences for the Government, even though the charge is replacing a fee already in place, according to sources.

An internal briefing prepared for Minister for Communications Alex White disclosed the plans were at a stage where sanction was sought from Mr Rabbitte to draft a memo for Government. Mr Rabbitte informed his officials on May 6th that the model was "not . . . acceptable".

The document discloses that detailed discussions took place between the department and Revenue late last year and early this year to establish the feasibility of Revenue collecting the charge. An Post currently collects TV licence fees.