Television Licence Fee
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-11
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Charlie McConalogue (FF), Donegal

There are two key revenue streams associated with the TV licence, which are the revenue arising from television licences sold by An Post as statutory issuing agent and the allocation provided by the Department of Social Protection in respect of the provision of free television licences to recipients of the household benefits package. As I know the Deputy is aware, the number of television licences sold by An Post has been in decline over the past number of years. This has been driven by three factors. First, an ageing population means that the number of households qualifying for a free TV licence increases every year by between 13,000 and 20,000. Second, the number of households without a liable television set has increased, driven by changes in the way that people access audiovisual services. Third, there has been a marked increase in evasion since the revelations regarding presenter payments and governance failings in RTÉ in July 2023.
In this context, TV licence sales have continued to decline over the past number of years. In 2024, 792,000 TV licences were sold by An Post. In 2025, this figure was just over 768,000. To the end of May 2026, just under 300,000 TV licences were sold, a 4.5% year-on-year decline in the year to date. A total of 299,373 were sold to the end of May this year.
In July 2024, the Government decided that the TV licence system would be retained, underpinned by improvements in collection and compliance to maximise revenue generation. The technical working group on the reform and enhancement of the TV licence was reconvened to bring forward proposals to that effect. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, recently received the report of the group and will decide on the next steps with Government colleagues.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-11