Sir, – Peter Murphy is concerned (Letters, July 22nd) that households with more than three mobiles phones would be penalised by my proposal (Letters, July 20th) to replace the TV licence fee with a monthly levy of €4 on all active mobile phone accounts. This can easily be addressed by the Department of Social Protection, which currently pays the TV licence fee for the over-70s.
Replacing the TV licence with the mobile phone levy would bring a significant reduction in the cost to that department of paying the TV licence fee for exempt households as in many instances they would now be only liable for €48 or €96 per year instead of the current ¤160.
The savings to the department would more than cover the cost of ensuring that no household would pay more than the existing TV licence fee. Individual households could apply annually online to the department for a rebate of the levy for the fourth and fifth mobile phones. – Yours, etc,
PETER BRANAGAN,
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Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.