As the Deputy is aware, I recently received the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the efficacy of the television licence fee collection process.
The report considers how the Department evaluates the effectiveness of the television licence fee collection, how the agency relationship between the Department and An Post is organised and the efficiency of the collection procedures used by An Post as agent of the Minister. It identifies deficiencies in the collection process and the progress made in the past two years in improving the system. The report's key recommendations on the management of the collection process by my Department are that: it put in place a service level agreement with An Post; it adopt specific or measurable targets to be achieved through the contract; it should routinely produce estimates of the licence fee evasion rate; and it should put in place a coherent set of performance targets for sales, maintenance of data base and prosecution of evaders.
These recommendations are being carefully considered by my Department with a view to early implementation of the most useful of them. This is being done with the assistance of a liaison group I established in January 2003 comprised of representatives from An Post, RTE and my Department. The role of this group is to examine ways of improving the licence fee collection. The group is assisted in its work by an independent consultant from KPMG.
In September last, An Post placed a question mark over its wish to continue operating the television licence fee collection system in the context of its recovery strategy. However, it has since indicated its wish to continue to manage the system and my Department is currently negotiating a two–year contract with the company. We will separately consider longer term options for the provision of this service in the near future.
