There is already a tax called the Household Charge in Ireland – so you would think the government would try and use use a different name for the TV Licence replacement – but they are also referring to it as a Household Charge !
(Read more about the real and original Household Charge here)
At the moment the television licence system means that apart from certain certain social welfare recipients, everyone that owns a television is supposed to pay the television licence fee. The current fee is €160 a year.
The Government are now planning on replacing the television licence with a ” household based public broadcasting charge ” which will be applied to all households – even those without a TV . It will be a blanket charge for everyone
The minister for Communications – Pat Rabbitte – said in the Dail that his department are still considering how to levy and collect the charge.
(We think it is likely that the broadcasting charge will be linked to the household registration data that is being collected for the Household Charge that was introduced this year.)
Mr Rabitte confirmed that there had been discussions with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government on the development of a suitable database of eligible households.
The Licence fee raises about €222 million a year – which means it is paid by about 1.38 million households. The government estimate that about 15% of households evade the fee currently.