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STOP US IF any of this sounds familiar.
In 1983 the government commissioned an external consultant to run the numbers at RTE in a desperate search for costs that could be cut as recessionary times bit hard. The consultant’s findings have been released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule.
Poor RTE always seems to come into the firing line when an Irish government has a few snips to make.
On this occasion, the consultant found that there was one way RTE could improve its efficiency – by getting people to actually pay their licence fee.
Yes, in 1983 almost 20% of viewers didn’t bother paying their annual charge.
“Reducing the level of TV licence evasion is the area of maximum potential for increasing revenue on the existing basis,” reads the consultant’s memo to government.
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The plan would have been to cede full responsibility to RTE for licence fee collection from An Post after three years. The hope was to reduce evasion from 18.6% to 13%.
In the meantime, the report states that “An Post should be given an attractive incentive payment scheme related to the level of licence fee revenue achieved”. A bonus for bothering to try to catch offenders in other words.
The consultant further estimated that RTE needed to shed 320 staff in order to improve its financial position:
There is a need for a restructuring of the corporate and senior management structures. The number of executives reporting to the Director General should be considerably reduced.
There’s no mention of what the top TV stars were paid in 1985 which is a shame. We’d hazard a guess it was less than what they get today though.
Still, the public may have been on board with the government’s plan if the thoughts of one Roscommon voter who wrote to Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald are anything to go by:
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It kills me to pay the Tv license ..when I think of the obscene money that RTE “celebrities” are on.
Exactly tubs and joe Duffy to name a few it’s scandalous !!!!!
They have to be paid these sums, they’d be snapped up by bigger companies overseas and excuse me while I laugh hysterically at that one?
Shed 320 jobs in 1985! I can only imagine how many they could shed in 2015!
I have never paid for a TV licence and I never will. My brother and sister in law were home from the US recently and we were talking about the licence. She asked if that was what we called “cable TV”. When I explained what it was exactly and that Sky/UPC were additional, she couldn’t believe it.
I’ve never paid the Propaganda tax. I would if RTE used the money to produce documentaries that educate people on how the private banking system really works or how boom and bust cycles are orchestrated and who stands to gain etc. The occasional doc on how to use critical thinking would be nice because it’s the sheep mentality and ignorance of the electorate that allows people with the “what’s in it for me” mentality to worm their way into positions of influence and power time and time again. Independent TDs have taken on the important job of investigative journalism because the complaint media don’t want to rock the boat. If the TV licence inspector knocks at your door, do not engage them in conversation, just tell them to get off your property and shut the door.
Super Ted I suppose you don’t pay the water charges ? You just prefer to let your neighbours pay instead.
Alan, I will never pay the Water (Bank bailout) Tax because setting up a monster quango for future privatization will ultimately end up costing every family upwards of €1000 per year for something we already pay for through general taxation and Irish Water will also provide a retirement home for failed politicians and their cronies.
Please try to look at the bigger picture, it’s not about me you or my neighbours paying a charge, it’s about all of us taking a collective stand against a current government who put the interests of the banks, corporations and unelected EU diplomats ahead of it’s own citizens.
I fully agree. It’s not worth the money. Especially when movies are 5 to 10 years old and a very small part of the population really watches it.
Personally I might watch Irish channels about 1% of my viewing time.
Super Ted . Thank you for a honest reply to me which is very rare in a reply such as this on the Journal.ie
What kind of sh!te is that? ‘Let neighbours pay’ They can choose not to pay either, up to them.
30 years on nothing has changed
Same presenters and “talent” and all.
Where is the talent?
“Where is the talent”!?! Ah, Jaysis… Sure Brian Dobson can suck a golf ball full of Botox through 20 ft of hosepipe…… There’s your “talent” right there….
How about they produce some decent, homegrown shows and get rid of the same deadwood that’s been sitting on chairs over in Montrose for 20 years.
Pay per view comes to mind rte lies and propaganda
If paying our TV licence could stop the ads on telly I don’t mind seems RTE have the best of both worlds little un fair eh?
I can understand the need for an ‘independent ‘ service, so let’s keep RTE1. But we should drop Network 2 as it only shows replays from US, UK, Australian programmes which can be seen on a multitude of other channels. Retaining Network 2 ensures the money we pay for the licence fee goes to foreign film producers.
You look at the BBC and how it spends the licence fee. Hard hitting investigating journalism such as Panorama and Spotlight, excellent sport coverage (what they have left), documentaries, original shows, nature programmes, etc… Some brilliant stuff. What did we get over Christmas. A programme about Glenroe
Independent from what & in what way b/c a few noble (mostly radio) exceptions aside like Sean o rourke or Richard Crowley who actually thinks rte is independent of government. Ingrid miley is employed full time at tax payers to interview parasitical trade unionists.
And a very one sided news team….pointed out to me by an English girl living here a number of years..ive noticed it myself now…very pro whoever is in government for fear of a funding cut if they dont tow the party line.
That M. Murphy quiz has just started on RTE. It’s like being dropped back into the 80′s. Licence fee my arse. Red Rock on a budget of €5mil beats that dribble of Fair City on a budget of €11mil per year. Licence fee my arse. Comedy on RTE The Republic of Tele crap. Licence fee my arse..
Yeah license fee his ass!!
11 million p.a. on fair city, are you actually serious??
A danger to the public, an ass that requires a licence.
But look at the good side, well for Mike Murphy anyway, the good old boys club is alive and well
We’re really only paying that money just to have the TV because it’s not for watching any of rte .
Pretty much sums it up, hate paying the tv license fee, esp as we don’t have rate channels or ability to receive them (Nor desire to).
It’s paying for a service you don’t need, want or consume
I don’t mind paying for Irish programs that wouldn’t be economic to produce otherwise but why do we need a huge bureaucratic organisation like RTE. Why don’t we have a much smaller organisation that gives grants to private companies that produce Irish content.
RTE still open, not privatised or shut down? I suppose Government Politicians do need to control information, propaganda and spin their lies to us poor sheeple!
With the kind of money we are paying we should at least get the level of shows coming out of Netflix. We pay more per month than you do for their services and we have nothing worth watching.
We always paid ours when it was in my wife’s name because she worries about that sort of stuff… i got it changed to my name and we’ve saved 3 years of tv licence money….
Don’t get me started. I feckin hate paying that bill…
I’d rather burn the money than hand it over.
Why can we not have the option to have these channels and pay the fee or not pay and not have them. When they are forcing you to pay for this crap year on year it annoys the hell out of me.rip off republic alive and well.
To many bills now for Irish homes. If corners are needed cutting . TV licence is as high on the for cutting list as IW. Can see big drops in near future on this licence fee. It hasn’t been changed yet to a broadcasting licence/fee as the public are sick to death of taxes. With election coming they will wait until after to introduce new taxes and hikes. Have no doubt FG/LAB will do this despite promises. Heres hoping FG take a hammering for the henious crimes against the electorate in the name of Europe and its banking elite. I feel Labour will be just a bad memory soon to be extinct also..
I was around back in 1985 and before it. rte is still ripping people off today as back then with the help of the law I’ve always paid a tv licence for the simple reason was I didn’t want to end up in jail but constantly got no value from rte where are our consumers rights against rte I’m now in my 60s and rte is still getting away with it with d help of d law shame on them for providing a poor service tv3 dose better service and they not ripping people off by charging a tv licence fee
Wait until the country realises that next year, we will all be paying an ‘internet tax’ (perhaps the only country in the world to do so), all so the powers that be can maintain their propaganda tool.
Just cut it down to news and parliament coverage and allow it to be paid via general taxation.
Ray Darcy earns half a million euro a year
“Earns” you’re being generous.
You WILL pay for your government sponsored propaganda. Nom nom nom!!! All u can eat 160 bucks! Or something like that. It’s just another tax on foreigners.
At least we’re consistent.
“They” know we are scrapping our TVs in droves.
Just like we scrapped our landlines.
The TV license will be replaced by a “Communications Tax”.
Mark my words your iPad will be taxed.
Yup, an Internet tax, a tax on information compliments of FG
P.S.
If we all scrap our TVs who will pay Marion half a million a year?
TV spongers….
Memories flooding back from that Ad….
Should have scrapped the TV licence when they introduced the LPT.
Why not cancel ALL charges when the USC was introduced? One thing has nothing to do with the other….baffling
Nothing new there. A lot of Irish people don’t want to pay for anything. Someone else should be paying for them as far as they are concerned.
Why should people be forced to pay for something they neither need nor want?
Proof of the docile, this will be the people of Ireland paying the water charges…all the wasted effort on protesting, just admit that the government knows whats best for you.
another earlier example. “I aint going to be paying that house hold charge lad” *wink wink*
Government shall prevail!
What a nation of whingers! I won’t/don’t pay licence fee, I won’t/don’t pay the water charge….but gimme gimme gimme welfare, I don’t/won’t pay taxes…gimme gimme gimme cash in hand…. Vomit inducing
The majority of people who won’t pay into either of these scams are working. There’s your theory kind of shot down there lad.
Not a bad bit of whinging from yourself Joe Bloggs. You keep handing it out as fast as you can earn it….as the only employed person on the Island. I think you’ll find the majority of people commenting on here pay a dam sight more tax than you but resent paying for an good old boys club with hugh wages and crappy repeats and bloody fair city.
In fairness, RTE is better than most other TV in Europe. Because we get UK stations, our perceptions of “good” are at a high standard. Ever see Spanish or Italian TV? Not to defend the high licence fee, but some level of payment in a small country seems ok to me. Mind, equally, it should be optional. The orchestra and a couple more general cultural things ( TG4, weather, news etc) should be paid from general taxation.
The licence fee money should follow the public service programmes not the television station. That would rule out a lot of the drivel pumped out by RTE.
BTW, it’s quite obvious that a lot of Irish people are opposed to paying for anything (water charges, LPT) with the exception of beer, cigarettes or sky.
With rte wages its harder to get out of rte than get in to it !
People obviously don’t get basic economics and the size of our population. The licence also does more than pay for RTE
Enlighten us then gobsh!te.
RTE has come along way over the last 30 years
Biggest saving would be to sell it.
In Portugal you pay your TV licence as part if your electric bill, no psper licence at all. Might be too clever for our lot to consider though.
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