Sir, – The recent controversy in RTÉ has pointed up suggested tensions between RTÉ's acknowledged role as a public service broadcaster and its activities as a commercial enterprise. It is, I think, accepted that Ryan Tubridy had a significant role to play in generating commercial revenues and that this justified his remuneration package.
It would be ironic and, I think, unfortunate if his legacy to RTÉ were to be the introduction of State funding as an alternative to the TV licence and, perhaps, in recognition of a fall-off in commercial revenues. This would be consistent with a report by the Future of Media Commission which proposed that the television licence fee should be replaced by exchequer funding (“TV licence should be scrapped, says report”, News, October 16th, 2021). General Taxation, who was enjoying a well-deserved breather after the water charges campaign, was to be pressed back into service.
RTÉ, with reason, complains that while it receives about €200 million a year in licence fee income, evasion costs it of the order of €50 million each year.
Based on these figures, the compliance rate is 80 per cent. Of course, the compliance rate is now lower because of the principled decision of many of the consumers of RTÉ's service not to renew their licences in protest at the drip-feed of revelations from RTÉ.
Faye O’Rourke’s Christmas: ‘I have a reputation for overdoing it. I splash out. It’s not in my control’
‘I know what happened in that room’: the full story of the Conor McGregor case
Sally Rooney: When are we going to have the courage to stop the climate crisis?
Ukraine fears nuclear plants are in Russia’s sights as missile strikes bring winter blackouts
Some of us will always find a principle which justifies not paying for something which we use.
The local property tax compliance rate is of the order of 95 per cent. Achieving that higher compliance rate for the TV licence would mean additional annual revenues of about €37 million for RTÉ. And what explains the difference in compliance rates? Local property tax (LPT) collection and enforcement is in the hands of Revenue while the purchase of a television licence is effectively a voluntary act of patriotism or foolhardiness.
Why do we have report after report on RTÉ's financial difficulties when the solution is staring all of us in the face? It would appear that we are fated to repeat the water charges farce by making those who are happy to pay pick up the tab for those who are not. Should we then not do the same by abolishing LPT, car tax, vehicle registration tax, bus and rail fares, duties on cigarettes and alcohol and VAT and pick up the tab from general taxation, which is a technical term much favoured by the Left to describe tax paid by the other fellow? We would then have reached the state of fiscal nirvana in which the 40 per cent of income earners in Ireland who have no income tax liability would pay for nothing. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.