TV Licence

Blisterman

Why does this exist in this day and age?
Surely, the vast majority of people have a TV.

It would seem to me, a much more sensible thing to do, would be, to simply raise taxes, maybe 1%, and fund RTE directly from taxes.

I can see several advantages to this method:

Will reduce evasion of paying TV licences, as it's a lot harder to avoid paying taxes.

Don't have to pay money for TV licencing inspectors. Do they ever catch anyone? You'd have to be pretty stupid to let them into your house, if you have a TV and no licence.

Fairer from a socialist point of view. People pay according to their means.
As it stands, the people who have most difficulty paying the TV licence, are the people, who have fewest alternative means of entertainment.

1huge1

I'm sure they'd save money too on those annoying ads...

elshambo

Blisterman wrote: »

Why does this exist in this day and age?

To pay for:
Fair City
Livin with lucy
The English Class
The View
Tubridy Tonight
The Late Late Show
Gerry Ryans wages
etc!

Viva le revolution!:D

Mossy Monk

Stealth tax ftw.

elshambo

Serious point, would it not be cheaper to have everyone pay a TV licence tax and then you could claim it full/partially back if you did not have a tv/ shared a house etc

Less inspectors/ less adverts/ less dodgers/ less expensive to run
more money for fine programming like Fairly Sh*tty, then again, as is, is probably best!:D

connundrum

Blisterman wrote: »

It would seem to me, a much more sensible thing to do, would be, to simply raise taxes, maybe 1%, and fund RTE directly from taxes.

That'd increase the licence fee to around €300 a year based on the average industrial salary - but I know if was only a suggestion. RTE would probably be able to reduce its licence fee if it was able to guarantee it's income via the tax man.

This makes as much sense to me as the suggestion to include road tax in the price of petrol - if you drive, you won't be able to avoid tax. Same thing goes for the tv licence - if you work, you won't be able to avoid paying.

The suggested idea of being able to go in and claim tax back if you don't have a telly is good too - along the same lines of claiming rent relief, waste collection relief etc.

It all sounds too good of an idea to come into action though, makes too much sense :rolleyes:

hot fuss

They should have the ESB collecting TV license money instead of An Post. Put the license fee on everybody's ESB bill once a year and if you don't have a TV you get an exemption. Everyone gets an ESB bill and close to everyone has a TV. Having An Post collecing license fee money just doesn't work. The amount of people getting away with not paying is crazy, especially with the amount of apartment blocks in the country.

davros

Yes, public service broadcasting should be funded from general taxation.

I looked up the numbers some years ago. Back in 1999, 98.5% of households had TVs (from CSO figures). Based on the number of licences sold and the number of households in the country, I calculated the evasion rate conservatively at 15%.

An Post was being paid €9.4m per year to collect fees.

You also have the silliness of one arm of the state charging a fee and another arm of the state (Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs) paying the fee on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people. Very wasteful.

It would make far more sense to save the collection costs and leave us all with one less thing to think about every year.

oclugg

I still can't believe that people give their name and admit to not having a licence when an inspector calls. "no" works fine, then politely close the door.

G Luxel

the ads are silly, actors on fair city now also front the ads, would prefer to see unknowns or those you dont see on other tv programmes.

just as a matter of interest, what was the reason given for 1.5 percent of homes not having a tv set?

Rb

It's sick when you compare the BBC to RTE and see how much we're being ripped off.

I'll dodge paying tv licence fees as long as RTE keeps playing ads, overpaying goons such as Pat Kenny etc. What a waste of our money.