Taxpayers end up paying the price for RTÉ’s financial errors

REGARDING the article ‘Cabinet eyes cut to TV licence fee’ (Mail, February 5) I find it baffling that householders – both those with a television set and those without – are expected to bail out RTÉ, a State-owned enterprise.

The financial mismanagement in RTÉ was created by RTÉ itself and not by t axpayers. The proposal to replace the TV licence fee with a Local Property Taxstyle fee is placing an extra financial burden on householders and businesses for a financial shambles that they did not create.

Anyone with broadband is already paying VAT at 23% for that service, so this is putting a double-tax on broadband services.

Not many people watch RTÉ, and not everyone possesses a television. Many businesses do not have a TV on their premises, yet rely on broadband to ensure their tills etc can function. Schools and colleges depend on broadband and they will be punished by paying a disguised TV licence through this extra tax on their broadband, to plug another financial hole caused by the mismanagement of funds in RTÉ.

The article says if the licence fee is transferred to the Revenue there will be an extra €15 a month coming out of people’s pockets. That totals €180 a year, an increase of €20 on the licence fee. I cannot understand how or why the Government expects the population to support five scheduling TV strands and four radio stations!

The revelations in the summer of 2023 highlighted exactly where the licence fee money was going and it most certainly was not on programming, much of which is repeat after repeat after repeat.

I think it would be fairer on everyone to make RTÉ a subscription-only service, so that only those who wish to watch and financially support RTÉ would have to pay for it.

MAEVE CURTIS, Greenhills, Dublin.