The current licence fee is set to be scrapped and replaced with a charge that will hit virtually every Irish home, regardless of whether a television set is present.
According to the Irish Independent, it will mean that anyone with a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone at home will be liable to pay.
The Government is to issue a new tender for the detection and collection of the current licence fee from such evaders.
Once the five-year contract tender is up, the State will then switch to the new household charge system.
Speaking on this RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Minister Bruton said that it is not currently known what devices will be included in the charge as technology quickly changes and develops.
“While we know there are certain devices being used, we don’t know what devices will appear on the scene in the coming years and we want to make sure however we devise legislation that that base is secure and doesn’t become eroded.
“One of the problems we have at the present is a high level of evasion and we want to set up a new system that is not subject to erosion in the same way,” he said.
When pressed that RTÉ is short of funding now, the minister said that the Government has been advised to wait.
“I think we put in place a working group which had all the key players, they clearly have recommended that the complexity of implementing a broadcasting charge would not be robust at this point, it needs time.
“While I can understand RTÉ would like to see something come in very quickly, the advice to government is that we need time to get it right,” he said.
Privately, Government figures are fearful of the backlash to what may be interpreted as a new ‘household charge’.
“We are not necessarily talking about a new household charge,” a Government source said. “We need to make sure public broadcasting is funded in a fair and sustainable way. Otherwise public broadcasting is being sacrificed at the expense of the internet giants.”
