An Post acts as issuing agent for TV Licence fee collection in accordance with Section 145 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 and all operational matters are dealt with by An Post.
An Post makes every effort to bring evaders into the licensed pool and a considerable amount of time and resources are spent on dealing with this issue. An Post concentrates its initial efforts in 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 from 2015 to June 2020 are set out in the table under:
Year
|
Number of summons issued
|
No of cases brought to court
|
2015
|
17,763
|
12,302
|
2016
|
17,608
|
11,994
|
2017
|
17,288
|
11,693
|
2018
|
16,120
|
10,234
|
2019
|
14,015
|
6,068
|
2020 (Jan-June)
|
6,883
|
1,637
|
The imposition and collection of fines for non-payment of TV Licences are a matter for the Courts Service in conjunction with An Garda Síochána and An Post does not receive statistics on imposition and collection of fines from the Courts service.