Under the Broadcasting Act, 2009, An Post is the designated agent, acting on my behalf, for the collection of the Television Licence fee. In line with the Act, An Post deals with all day to day operational matters of the current licence fee regime. An Post makes every effort to bring evaders into the licensed pool and a considerable amount of time and resources are spent in dealing specifically with this issue. An Post concentrates its initial efforts on getting people to buy the licence when due and by following up with a series of reminder notices and inspector visits. Bringing people to court is a last resort and only carried out where all other means have failed.
The number of summons issued and cases brought to court between 2014 and 2018 are set out in the following table:
|
Year
|
Number of Summons applied for
|
Number of cases brought to court
|
|
2014
|
20,877
|
13,976
|
|
2015
|
17,763
|
12,302
|
|
2016
|
17,608
|
11,994
|
|
2017
|
17,288
|
11,693
|
|
2018
|
16,120
|
10,234
|
The imposition and collection of fines for non-payment of TV licence fees are a matter for the Courts Service in conjunction with An Garda Síochána. No statistics for fine collection, non-payment of fines or age analysis of outstanding fines are provided to An Post by the Courts Service.
