Your devices won’t cost you, at least for the time being.
The TV licence will not be extended to laptops and tablets, it has been announced.
Pursuing evaders of a ‘broadcasting licence fee’ would not be worth the money the licence would make, according to Minister for Communications Denis Naughten.
“The logistics of trying to police it would cost more in enforcement,” he said.
But one TD has claimed that the government dropped the plan to include all devices over 12 inches in the licence fee because it feared a backlash similar to the one around water charges.
“I have more than a strong suspicion that the memory of the hiding handed out to the government by the anti-water charges movement played on the Minister’s mind as he decided to strike down these proposals from his department,” Solidarity TD Mick Barry told the Irish Times.
Minister Naughten had intended to include devices to tackle the revenue losses suffered because of the country’s high rate of fee evasion and to reflect people’s changing entertainment habits.
He will be bringing the Broadcasting Amendment Bill 2017 before the Cabinet later today.
