Sinn Féin offers amnesty to licence fee non-payers as it pitches direct funding for RTÉ

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould has said that an amnesty could be introduced for people who have not paid for the TV licence, mirroring the amnesty offered to those who didn’t pay water charges.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Gould pointed out that last year 13,000 people went through the courts for TV licence evasion. The cost was “just over €2 million”, he said, which was the same amount RTÉ lost on Toy Show The Musical.

“So what we have is ordinary people being dragged through the courts, facing a thousand-euro fine, short-term imprisonment and a charge against on them, while at the same time, executives at RTÉ are squandering millions with no accountability,” he said.

Mr Gould denied that Sinn Féin was encouraging people not to pay their TV licence. “I’m saying at this moment in time, the licence fee is a legal requirement. We’re telling people to make sure to pay the licence fee, as long as it’s a legal requirement.” The amnesty for those who have not paid their TV licence was just one of a number of measures the party was proposing, he added.

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“In 2017, the Government gave an amnesty for people who didn’t pay the water charges. So look, this has been done before,” he said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Sinn Féin plans for an amnesty would be a “slap in the face” for those who had paid up.

Mr Varadkar said he “profoundly” disagreed with the measure, which is contained in a Sinn Féin private members motion on the future funding of RTÉ due to be debated in the Dáil this evening.

“I really think this is desperation from Sinn Féin, and a reversion to left populism which I suppose worked for them in the past and maybe they think it will work for them again.”

“I actually think for a lot of law abiding decent people who pay their bills, who pay the TV licence, they’d be quite annoyed actually at the thought that people who don’t pay their way, don’t obey the law would somehow get an amnesty from Sinn Féin,” he said to reporters on his way into Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.

He argued that the solution to controversies in RTÉ was not people refusing to pay their TV licence, which he said would harm ordinary workers at the broadcaster and damage public service broadcasting.

The government will put down a counter motion to the Sinn Féin proposal, which mandates the government to scrap the licence fee immediately and introduce a platform-neutral media fund to support public service media content production.

Meanwhile Minister for Finance Michael McGrath labelled Sinn Féin’s motion as “an act of irresponsible politics”.

“They are reacting to events. Last year when they brought forward their budget plans for 2024 they made no provision for such abolition and therefore their budgetary approach lacks credibility and it does augur well if that is going to be their approach if they are elected to government in the future,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe said:

“If Sinn Féin are making for the case for change to the country, is this what they are offering? If it is, what are they going to say to everybody else who has been paying taxes and charges fairly over the last few years, are they going to get an amnesty too?

“Sinn Féin on the one hand are making extraordinary spending commitments, on the other hand they’re continuing their approach, saying these are the taxes they want to reduce, these are the taxes they want to eliminate,” he said.

“This wasn’t included in the Sinn Féin alternative budget. They are saying that they want to pay for it out of exchequer funding but they’re not saying how, they’re not saying where the money will come from, and they’re not saying what other taxes they will change,” he said

Under a model proposed by Sinn Féin RTÉ would be funded under a dual system with direct exchequer funding along with commercial funding through advertising.

“Our new model will ensure that public sector broadcasting going into the future will be on a much better, sustainable footing,” Mr Gould told Morning Ireland.

“What we are proposing in our Bill today is a triple lock, and that will ensure independence. And what we mean by that is we would have Coimisiún na Meán on that. They would outline and review the amount of funding that would be needed, that would be sustainable over a four-year period, so that it couldn’t be interfered by ministers.

“And if a minister tried to interfere, they would have to come before the Dáil to explain why.”

Mr Gould said that the Taoiseach was being hypocritical about the TV licence because he had been prepared to abolish water charges and there had been an amnesty. “So is he saying there’s one rule for the water charges and then the other one, if we abolish the TV licence.”

Cabinet is also set to consider a plan to introduce child benefit for 18-year-olds in full time education earlier than initially outlined. Under the proposal, the benefit would be paid to those eligible from May, rather than September, as was initially outlined when the policy was introduced on budget day.

Ministers will also discuss the HSE’s National Service Plan, which is expected to mandate a €250 million reduction in spending on agency staff in the health service, while Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe will seek formal cabinet support for the public pay deal struck with unions last month.

The cabinet will also discuss plans for a special Oireachtas committee to examine the report of the Citizen’s Assembly on drug use.

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