Licence fee fallout from RTÉ payments fiasco and a 1950s clampdown on owners of radios

By Tom Gillespie

THE fallout from the RTÉ payments scandal has resulted in huge numbers of households refusing to take out the mandatory €160 television licence.

Last month it was reported that over 800 more people had been brought before the courts for not having a TV licence this year compared to the whole of 2022.

Figures released showed that 10,413 people were brought before a judge for not paying the fee. That compared to 9,610 last year.

I have qualified for a free TV licence, but that not being the case I would be added to the growing numbers refusing to pay the levy to the Department of Social Protection because of the cock-up at Montrose which has rightly angered the fee-paying - now the non-fee-paying - public.

According to the department it is a legal obligation to have a valid TV licence if you have a TV in your home. This includes the period between your TV licence expiry date and you qualifying for a free licence.

Sixty-seven years ago, in March 1956, the then Department of Posts and Telegraphs launched a major clampdown on those not holding a radio licence.

A nationwide advertising campaign was launched ‘warning’ householders of the penalties involved.

On March 3 of that year a large advertisement (pictured) appeared on the top of page five of The Connaught Telegraph.

It read as follows: ‘WARNING - In view of the evasion which is believed to be taking place still in the payment of Wireless Licence fees, it has been decided to conduct an intensive nation-wide campaign against holders of unlicensed wireless sets, beginning on Monday next, March 5, 1956.

‘Holders of unlicensed sets are urged in their own interests to take out licences immediately as it is intended to prosecute every offender discovered during the campaign.

‘A licence may be obtained at any Post Office at a cost of 17s. 6d. Issued by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs’.

Today all of us have access to worldwide radio stations through apps in our smart phones. The app ‘Radios Ireland’ contains 56 different Irish radio stations, all of them, with the exception of the RTÉ stations, operate successfully without the benefit of a licence fee stipend.

Our own Ballyhaunis-based Midwest Radio, being the most successful in the country, delivers a service catering for the demands of listeners, not what the radio bosses impose, and their formula has proven highly successful, with listeners tuning in worldwide.

I might be slightly biased as The Connaught Telegraph were the first partner to team up with Paul Claffey and Chris Carroll in their bid for the original licence and the franchise for County Mayo.

The station went on air in July 1989, the first broadcast being from Breaffy House Hotel in Castlebar - and the rest is local radio history.

In October Midwest Radio had their licence renewed for a further 10 years. Last month the station received almost €100,000 funding from Coimisiun na Mean to produce programmes of topics of interest to their listeners.

Local newspapers also provide a comprehensive service, but without any State subvention, in giving their print readers and those online accounts of the weekly happenings in their respective circulation areas.

We here at The Connaught Telegraph have the proud record of being the oldest provincial newspaper in continuous circulation since March 17, 1828 - long before national or local radio became a reality. We have encountered Famine, two World Wars, recessions and most recently Covid.

An Post have the responsibility of collecting the TV licence fees but the RTÉ fiasco has placed their inspectors in a most embarrassing position when knocking on doors to check if householders hold a current licence.

Of course, their records will show who the defaulters are and where the live, but the non-paying householders are expressing a genuine grievance with the national broadcaster in how they hoodwinked the public over the payments to their top presenters.

It will be of interest to see how the courts will address the defaulters and no doubt defending solicitors will have a field day in putting forward ‘excuses’ for their clients.

As we approach Christmas and festive TV viewing we will again be agog at the level of repeats that will be beamed into our homes. The majority of households are now SKY subscribers of one sort or another, giving them a vast choice of programmes.

I do feel for our publicans who, to attract sports fans, must have SKY Sports in their premises, at exorbitant cost to them. I wonder too, how many, if any of them, have withheld from paying the TV licence.

While RTÉ management caused the licence fee boycott over the payments cover-up, it should not take from the quality of home produced programming that a dedicated and talented staff at the station do on a daily basis. They too have been left red-faced with the situation and unfortunately their annual budgets will be impacted by the cutback in licence fee revenue.