'Scandal after scandal at RTÉ' responsible for low TV licence figures, TD says
Gordon Deegan
Income from the TV licence fee continues to decline with €47.89 million generated from just under 300,000 TV licences sold in the first five months of this year.
New figures provided by Minister for State at the Department of Communications, Charlie McConalogue, reveal that the 299,373 licences sold to the end of May are a 4.5 per cent decrease year on year.
Minister McConalogue said that the 299,373 licences for the first five months of 2026 compare with 768,000 licences sold for the 12 months of 2025, which was, in turn, a 3 per cent decline on the 792,000 licences sold in 2024.
In 2023, the year that the RTÉ secret payments controversy came to light, TV licence sales reduced by 13 per cent from 947,924 in 2022 to 824,278 for 2023.
In response to the new figures for the first five months to the end of 2026, Darren O’Rourke stated that it is clear “that the TV licence funding model is completely broken”.
Deputy O’Rourke claimed that “the single biggest contributing factor is scandal after scandal in RTÉ."
“In 2019, over 1 million TV licences were sold."
Deputy O’Rourke said fewer than 300,000 TV licences have been sold so far for this year compared to last year when only 768,000 were sold.
Deputy O'Rourke said: “This is a very significant decrease and it calls into serious question the fundamental funding model for public sector broadcasting in this State."
In his oral Dáil response on the issue, Deputy McConalogue told Deputy O’Rourke that the number of TV licences sold by An Post in recent years has been driven by three factors.
He said: “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.”
Minister McConalogue said that 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.
He said that the technical working group on the reform and enhancement of the TV licence was reconvened to bring forward proposals to that effect.
He said that the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O'Donovan, recently received the report of the group and will decide on the next steps with Government colleagues.
Deputy McConalogue said that the report “will be considered and I have no doubt over the next short period we will step it out in responding to it and plotting the way forward”.
"There are real challenges there as we all accept. It is really important we see the continuing reform happening at RTÉ to build confidence in the public in terms of people purchasing their TV licence.
“I think we all agree it is more important than ever at the moment that we have a good public service broadcaster in this country and have that service.
“When we see what is happening in the level of disinformation and misinformation now in the online world, having a credible authoritative public service broadcaster is more important than ever.
"We have recognised that at Government level in putting the funding streams in place to support RTÉ. It is important we ensure there is a sustainable way forward and a strong broadcaster underpinned by that funding into the future.”
The €160 TV licence is collected by An Post and the revenues go to the Department of Culture, Communications, and Sport who provide approximately 85 per cent to RTÉ to carry out its public service media commitments.
A further 7 per cent is paid to Coimisiún na Meán and An Post is paid approximately 6 per cent of the licence fee in respect of TV licence collection activities.
