is he having a laugh,i pay for my broadband which includes vat and my t.v. provider also charges vat,its like going into a shop and paying for the same item three times.

Would you ever go fuck yourself, Pat!

He wants to tackle the 15 per cent that aren’t paying the tv licence. So he decides to hit every house hold.

Surely a Broadcasting Charge should be paid by broadcasters?

next up road tax for people with no cars

Yahoo – another basically charge on the home and everything in it!
A great bunch of lads FG and Labour are! (NOT!)

Yes, I know its supposedly replacing the TV licence but this new ‘charge’ is supposed to cover everything but the money is still going to RTE services, etc!
(If I want them or NOT!)

I’m paying ALREADY for similar services on devices each time I top-up, pay my Sky bill or pay additional bills!

…Not that that matters to FG or Labour!

They just want the money to fund an over bloated organisation that is half filled with their buddies around directors tables and tired, boring and over-paid TV and radio presenters!

———————————————

Look lads and lassies, they don’t give a damn about us. You know it and they know we know it.

Whats more, Noonan yesterday assured German bankers: ‘Ireland will not burn senior bondholders’”
…And thats after they stated in the election manifesto: “Fine Gael in Government will force certain classes of bondholders to share in the cost of recapitalising troubled financial institutions”
…And Labour said at election time: “Is it Labour’s way or Frankfurt way” – Eamon Gilmore

…But then again, Noonan WANTS the public to pay on the German bonds – seeing as he owns some of them!
True – see: Register shows Minister for Finance owns German bonds
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/0409/1224294305462.html

So give out all you want – they aren’t listening though and they don’t give a crap!
Your paying and you can like it or lump it!

—————————————————————

Your paying for whatever latest stunt or over priced excuse they can come up with!

Now… are you going to accept it – or do something REALLY about it?

for some reason, unknown to me, whatever the government has done i’ve thought to myself that whatever measures they are bringing in have a reason and they are trying to help the country. but this proposed bill is the straw that will break my back. this bill stinks of greed and is the definition of hitting the common man. everyone will effectiviely be hit with a charge on the presumption that you MAY use the service.

this government has now lost it. we all need to raise our voices and be heard on this one. disgraceful.

I have no problem with paying the re-named licence fee but what I find extraordinary is the revelation that 15% of people do not pay the existing one. This despite a very hard hitting advertising campaign over recent years which promised that defaulters could easily be identified and would have to pay. So what went wrong that resulted in such a high rate of non-payment? Was it all just advertising puff with no substance? Were the licence inspectors just the figment of some advertising copywriter’s imagination? And if the authorities have been so inefficient as to allow this scandalously high rate of non-payment to continue what difference will re-naming the licence fee make?

So what he;s saying is they want to put a tax on the internet? Thats effectively what this is.
If you have a mobile broadband device or adsl or cable then your going to have to pay this regardless of what you use the connection for.

So,do we take it the millions spent on advertising has been just more money down the sewer?

Do we not pay a TV licence so we can have a “public service broadcast station” i.e RTE? So why should someone be liable for the fee if the choose to watch international shows/films online? People of Ireland, there is a word called NO, we need to start using it.

I’m curious, with this new replacement tax will RTE still get 90% of the revenue from it?
At this stage RTE should have to fend for themselves in the real world instead of being supported by the tv license fee by the general public, they don’t have decent programming and they still show adverts unlike the bbc.

Perhaps he cold either close RTE or make it More efficient? Nice one Labour for dreaming up ways to give heaps more money to our social and economic betters in Donnybrook.

I think I will start a party that looks out for the little guy. Oh wait…..

It can boil down to something like this at times…

If your an 18 year old and just moved out of the family home into a flat or apartment, sharing with your friends…
You haven’t got around to buying a TV yet. Its on the list of things to get for your new place.

Do you have a phone?
Do you have a laptop?

Fine – your paying for RTE and its services – and if you don’t like it, tough buddy!
YOUR PAYING – NOW COUGH UP!

RTE dont use licence fees for their web based content, why does the goon Rabbitte want to charge people for it?

He has no understanding of technology, why is a man with no qualifications managing this ministry?

Approximately 7% of licence revenue goes to the BCI Broadcasting Fund.
Pat’s quango!!

So Rabbitte is looking to introduce a tax on those of us who get our news and entertainment on-line on top of the 27% VAT we already pay to have internet? How is it that all other tv and radio stations can afford to be run solely on advertising revenue while RTE needs to be supplemented by the tax payer? I could almost understand if the Government owned the masts or fibre optic cables used to pump the internet into our homes, but they don’t. They’re trying to tax us on a service they don’t provide. Shocking display.

I threw the tv out years ago and haven’t missed it since. I do not watch RTE or any other Irish tv broadcaster online, because I think their programs are sh*te and besides I don’t get the speeds on my connection.

So I am not going to pay, very simple.

But here’s an idea. Instead of having everyone to pay for the rubbish the state tv is producing, just block the websites of RTE TV3 etc. No big miss and no one will “secretly”, without paying their license, watch tv shows again.

Joe Duffy does deserve a pay rise in all fairness and I hear fair city has been nominated for a Grammy.

I wouldn’t mind this at all (If I lived in England).

RTE aggregates all the rubbish shows that SKY and Channel 5 didn’t want. A huge proportion of the programming is from the UK and abroad, so what in Gods name are we paying for here?

I pay a TV license fee For a 12 year old tv that is only used for the kids to watch DVDs as we cancelled satellite subscription due to costs. No matter what rabbit ears contraption we have tried to use, we cannot pick up “free-to-air” Irish channels as the area e live in is blocked from receiving signals. It bothers me HUGELY that I am forced to pay the fee, and changing the name of the fee is a farce created to satisfy the big boys of Europe. It is actually scary just how far they are willing to push the ordinary hard working normal citizens of this country.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that this government now actually wants us to take to the streets. No administration could actually posess such poor timing or utter stupidity (no, i’m serious!)

Fuck RTE and all those overpaid, uninteresting, talentless dopes.

The ‘user pays’ principle is a nonsense if there is no viable non-user, non-paying opt out. Believe it or not, some of us don’t watch television, on any medium, ever.

This is one more reason for me personally not to sign up for the household charge. Signing up implies consent, and I will not consent to becoming a peasant that can be squeezed homeless to fund the creation of a new kleptocracy, same as the old kleptocracy.

Essentially it’s a broadband tax. Why don’t they tax radios, there’s way more of them out there, RTÉ’d make a fortune off it.
This is our SOPA, a cause for the netizens of Ireland to rise up and be heard.

I personally would be happy not to receive RTE channels as we don’t watch any of the crap they show. Why not make RTE a subscription based service you choose to pay for and leave the rest of us alone. I can most definitely say if I watch TV on my laptop it’s not their rubbish that Im viewing. Of course they won’t do this as their revenue would fall overnight and they know it. Sick to death of the shite this shower are coming up with, all their new charges designed to tax us on everything. We pay for our internet and we pay VAT enough is enough.

This idea is dead in the water already, with enough people refusing to register for the household charge it can’t be implemented.
People, wake up, it’s called people power, Don’t Register, Don’t Pay.

It’s been a long time since I watched a program that was paid for by the tv licence. I don’t have a tv, I don’t watch six one news, I don’t listen to radio one/2fm and I really wish the whole lot of them would piss off. They don’t provide value for money and I don’t use them therefore I shouldn’t pay and to be honest until quality improved neither should anyone else

One soul for sale …… Open to offers

This is again, just the beginning. Wait til they introduce the data tax which the ISPs will be forced to implement.

Anyone know roughly how much the RTE spends on American tv shows and series? Now thats a scam if ever I saw one.

Your paying for the right to receive! Content is irrelevant to the government. Then that takes away the responsibility for them to provide you with a decent service!

The only thing rte has done good is that kids programme with the cartoon character in it, Simon Delaney plays his dad its quite funny

Perhaps I’m mistaken, but wasn’t the stealth-tax of the Household Charge effectively brought in to replace the TV Licence?

So now we have even more expenses to cover – Saorview/TV License/Household Charge/Related VAT – even though we may be digital customers and may not avail of consume any of the programming that RTE transmit.

The BBC recieve funds from a TV Licence scheme and in turn do not subject their viewers to on screen advertising.

RTE receive a TV License fund and yet they still generate revenue from advertisements.

This, I believe, is a capitalist market. During these difficult time everyone has has to work harder – Newsagents, insurance companies, car dealerships, hairdressers, everyone – Why mustn’t RTE do the same?

Adapt or Die.

Why is it every day I read the journal I see that another minister is dreaming up new ways to tax the general public, it they put half the effort into ideas for job creation then maybe, just maybe they’d be fulfilling they’re pre election promises and 2013 might be the beginning of good things to come!!! I think these dosey gits are missing the point!!

How much does it cost for RTE to buy all the English programmes like Eastenders, Corrie, etc. What a waste of money when all these programmes are already shown on FTA BBC and UTV. Maybe they should be more efficient first and cut the extortionate wages of PK and Tubbs and then come back to screw us?

Car tax pays for upkeep of roads not footpaths so a levy on shoe leather or shoes will raise money for councils to improve toothpaste.
This off course will not apply to ministers as they get driven around in cars paid for by the state

Next: Eamonn Gilmore suggests air tax

They can just go and eff off at this stage, a feckin’ broadband tax for the worse service in Europe. Irish people are paying crazy prices for the cost of broadband already compared to our European counterparts. I wonder would they consider taxing the tea in my flask, it is hot afterall, maybe too much of a luxury.

This is a shameless Internet connection tax. Pure and simple. Rabbite is dressing it up in some other guise to try to pull the wool over the electorate’s eyes. More anti-technology thinking from a drab government. First Sherlock is out to hack at Internet access to ‘protect’ the entertainment industry, and now Rabbite is joining the attack in order to ‘protect’ public service broadcasting, RTE. Shortfall is hacking at the supermarkets and off-licenses to ‘protect’ the public from cheap drink, in other words to protect the vintners’ cartel. I hope those who voted for the smoked salmon socialists are retching with all this reactionary policy stuff. The irony is that these ministers are touted in the media as the progressive wing. What a laugh.

The fact that an utterly shite channel like RTE gets my money, because it’s the law, pisses me off no end. Remember folks, this is the channel which rang in the new year by treating us to Crystal Swing and Brendan Bowyer ‘doing’ the hucklebuck.

If this broadcasting charge is going to be applied to businesses then it is only fair that the IMRO charge is done away with. Otherwise, it is a second form of tax for them.

My crossword has me flummoxed!!!
3 down.) a short word to describe Pat Rabitte.
C something, something, T.
What COULD it be????

Curiously this raises it’s head a week after Netflix appears. Suddenly the writing is on the wall. The trend suggests that people will access the news, information and entertainment they want when and where they want it, not the shite offered by RTE. This is a brutal attempt by the minister to maintain an income stream from a quickly diverging source.
RTE is on the ropes and this can be mostly attributed to poor planning and vision by those at the top and massive salaries paid to over-comfortable under-performing hacks.

Will we pay?…I can’t see why not… we’ve paid everything else we were asked to. Collectively many have ridiculed the occupy protests…because we don’t get it. WTF!!

When was the last time that shivering individual fat self serving politician paid for his own TV license? Or if he did you can be sure he slipped it into his “expenses” account to be sure he wasn’t bloody out of pocket. I’m sick paying the money for the shite that RTE throw out. I already have to pay sky extra so as something decent is on in the evening. Stick your new charge in the same place you’ll be sticking the “household” charge. More money out of us working class idiots while you and your banking and developer friends surround yourself in luxury while we struggle with the basics.
Go get the people who aren’t paying their TV license to pay and get the 25 million you are losing, or here’s an idea cut the wages of the overpaid mediocre presenters and DJ’s employed if they dont like it, see if they can do any better getting a job with The BBC. I’m sure they wouldnt be long coming back down to earth.

I could come on here and rant and rave like a lot of others but lets face facts these people that claim to represent us will do what they want weather we agree or not. For most of us we will come on to pages like this and have a moan and feel better. I don’t agree with it either but it is probably going to happen anyway. Like a previous poster said it is funny how a week after the excellent Netflix arrive we have this.

Scrap the tv licence. Scrap the collection agency and all it’s redundant staff. Charge an extra 10 euros per month on all electricity bills and ESB pay directly to the exchequer. No need to register. Businesses might complain but employees take radios and TVs in at times, football matches etc. Big cost savings no big implementation plan, no evasion unless you go off grid. Pass the savings back to the consumer.

What a loada b*llox, so we currently waste our money on a TV licence to see ryan interview tv ‘celebrities’ on a weekly basis….and now they want a TV licence if you’ve got no TV, whats next, a general tax rate that doesn’t include all our taxes generally, a road tax even if our car is off the road, a ‘green’ tax that is not used for anything green, a universal social tax that’s not universal, a house tax on a house we already paid our tax on, a septic tank registration on tanks that are already registered with the authorities, a water tax when water is a human right…..ahhhh no, our governments have a better idea, let’s charge us muppets all of the above….maybe they should just bunch them all together and call it ‘muppet’ tax and if they can screw us all by say, 80%, then that can pay 100% of their top wages and top pensions….everyone’s a winner….

It is well passed the time to get these overpaid, overfed and out of touch politicians removed from control of this country.
The system isn’t working and hasn’t worked for a long long time.
We need representatives who are you enough to actually have a notion as to what this nation wants.

The way I see it its a tax on the internet. Pat Rabbit is not happy that people have become wise to the fact that they can scrap their tv and just watch the stuff they want on their pc/mac/smartphone. Go him for promoting use of the internet. I know he’d state that people are evaiding paying the license but my response would be that thats an issue with enforcement, not a right to tax everyone regardless of whether they use the service or not. If the gov really don’t want us to watch RTE player without paying then make it a paid service.

When I moved into my new house 12 years ago I put in a full uk sky subscription. I have not watched rte for 11 years. Their programs are pure rubbish and copies of uk programs. There are exceptions , Miriam and vincent are 2 that I know of. Seen a couple of interviews by them in someones house. Comparing Graham norton to Brendan O’Connor, Jesus. Hopeless. Irish tv is shit, news is shit all local news, a car hitting a ditch is Not news. Friend called to say tv inspectors were around, myself and herself spent an hour gathering as much furniture into front sitting room put 42″ plasma into box on top of furniture. Inspector called, told him to look in window, we split up, she is taking tv with her. Hid the mercedes in the farm. She disappeared until he was gone. He wrote no set, won’t be back for 5 years.
Saved €900, don’t watch rte or listen to radio 1. Advertising covers their cost, no need to pay Irish broadcaster €800,000 for a country of 4 million people.

This sounds an awful lot like the scrapping of postgrad funding that came out before the last budget.
They’re worried about people not paying the housing charge so they float the idea of a much worse tax (which must’ve taken a while to think up, considering what they’re asking for already). Then they’ll shelve it with the words:

“We’ve taken into consideration the position of the homeowner and the great contribution they’ve made to the country, with special recognition for those who have paid, and those who will pay, the housing charge in the coming months. For this reason, plans to change the tv licence fee have been shelved pending a full report on the current structuring of the licence fee charges.”

Everyone breaths a sigh of relief, nods and says “well at least they didn’t start charging us for the internet.”

On the flipside, if noone took much notice of his comments yesterday they’d probably bring it in. Plus the fact its been tabled means it might be brought in further down the line.
There’s a word for these kinda dumb tricks, diversonary announcements or something.

Why don’t RTE just approach their so called stars and say the maximum amount that one can earn in a year is a hundred grand. If they don’t like it the can’t just feck off over to England where I’m sure there will be many jobs waiting for them

Dear Mr. R.

I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 2011 in which forthright 2nd time you request that I pay monies owed to you. I first want you to know that by no means do I dispute my debt and I intend to pay as soon as possible.
However, I would like to bring to your attention that you are not my only creditor. I have many more creditors, quite as honourable and important as you, and whom I wish to pay too. That is why, each month, I throw all the names of my creditors into a hat and draw one randomly. The one drawn is paid immediately.
I regret to inform you, that given the harsh and threatening tone of your last letter, you will not be taking part in the next three draws.
Yours Sincerely,

Why is the licence fee always considered sacrosanct ?

Prob because alot of the older generation, the people who usually get what they want from government by showing us younger ones how you make a govt jump to your demands! Most of them would be staunch supporters of rte and would miss it if it was to go.

That said I think if the current economic conditions are as bad as our government are saying, then the licence fee should be scrapped completely. We all know the household charge will increase in next year or so do why not scrap the licence fee and double the household charge so we don’t an keep ahead of our paymasters?

If you want to keep tv licence at 60e got local investment etc and keep one rte station then so be it. We simply don’t need 2 national stations when most of us have access to a wide range of stations. Rte1 and tv3 is enough.

Make RTE pay per view and reduce/scrap “broadcasting” tax.

Put the shoulder to the wheel and lets get this great country back on its feet pay up end off

I sent Mr.Rabbitte an email last night.

minister.rabbitte@dcenr.gov.ie
pat.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie

“Dear Mr.Rabbitte,

I am taking a few minutes after my hard days work to send you this email, hard work, do you remember what that is?
It is regarding your proposed “Media” charge announced today to help out that poor state broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann and the poor people it employs.

You should be ashamed of yourself trying to introduce such a ludicrous “charge” for a state broadcaster that is way out of date & out of touch.

I would suggest that you sit down with a pen and paper and go through the enormous salaries that are paid to the presenters.
THAT, Mr.Rabbitte is where you need to start making savings.
Joe Duffy, Pat Kenny, Marian Finucane, Miriam O’Callaghan etc – Cut THEIR ridiculous wages.

RTE’s digital service has been a disaster since the very first day,cut it.
Just glancing at RTE’s website, you are taking in massive amounts of revenue in advertising from Ford & Aviva to name just two companies, along with the TV Licence revenue & the advertisements shown every fifteen minutes on RTE’s radio and television stations, is this not enough for you and the grossly overpaid civil servants that “present” the programming?

You are dillued Mr.Rabbitte if you think this proposed charge will be taken lying down.
You & your government are once again killing the people of this country with your petty and short sighted charges.

Nobody wants your state run tripe, keep it.

Take your head down out of your backside and start protecting the PEOPLE of this country, who you and the other elected members of our wonderful government have a mandate to protect.

You are a disgrace to the founding members of the Labour party and the ethics and morals on which it was founded.

For aslong as I reside in this country, which lets face it wont be much longer with the way you and your Finé Gael buddies are running the country into the ground, I shall NEVER vote for Labour again.
You and your party have broken all your pre-election promises without even being in government for 12 months.

If you wish to discuss this any further Mr.Rabbitte, please give me a call – my number is at the bottom.

Yours sincerely,”

Doh! Still have to pay mine, got a strongly worded letter about it 2 months ago but heard nothing since, hope they send me a reminder before I’m hauled off to court.

“€25 million lost” because of people evading paying licence fee… Feck off would ya! How much is lost through minister perks eh? Feck off again! Feckin shower of Fecks!

So to conclude: Instead of chasing the 15% of people who dont pay their license, or reducing the inflated wages of the RTE ‘Stars’, or getting RTE to sell their wears abroad – the minister plans on charging every household for ‘content’ even if they dont watch RTE, but may (or may not) have Internet access, for which they dont own the infrastructure & charge 27% VAT already. And this is on top of the hardware upgrade required to view Saorview (which means free!)

My Understanding is that if you have a TV, Radio or any other device that can receive RTE Broadcast of what ever specturm is Licensed – Here is how the break down of the TV-License was in 07 & 08 http://www.rte.ie/about/licence.html#question3

Now if they introduce a falt fee for people that no not have a TV, Radio and only access information online, are they going to give some of the fee to the The Journal, where I get most of my news? I don’t use any of the RTE websites, etc.

This is just another Tax that they can levy on everyone, whether you have a TV, Radio, Computer, Broadband. Even if you live in a well with nothing they’d try charge you.

Someone correct me! Is Pat Rabbit an anagram for dopey?
I fail to see the difference between 25 million in TV license evasion (which has my postal address on it) and a household communications charge (which has my postal address on it). If they evade the TV license, renaming the charge will certainly send shivers up their spine!!!!

What about some folk who do not have broadband, TV, SKY etc. Perhaps they like the company of just a radio. Will they have to pay full whack!

In this capitalist, “democratic” society we live in, should not RTE get competitive? Or die, and get replaced by a broadcaster that has directors that know how to function in these modern times. The last thing we need is more legislation. And the price will go up no doubt.

Nice little earner though ………. still, keep voting ya’all.

Its another fkn gimick by these leeches.
How many taxes/increases now have we had in the first 18 days of the year?

Not sure if anyone saw ITV news last night and the 250.0000 Greeks who have to go to soup kitchens due to their austerity measures and them also paying off the EU (w)bankers. Are we heading towards a similar situation?

Fine Gael are a disgrace.

Anyone know how we can start a facebook / online petition to finally push to putting a stop to this daily leeching?

Pot”ay”to, pot”ahh”to. A tax by any other name, is still a tax. They’ll get the money some way.

Why don’t we put tvs & the best internet access in a community centre in each locality &pay for that & not watch tv or use the net at home? If we all did that for a few months we would soon see them u turn. These guys know there is no unity in this country that’s why they do what they want.

Can anyone answer my question?? Why when I pay 40euro for a sky subscription that i need to pay for tv channels I NEVER watch??? The fact I pay sky to view channels through there service really should exempt me from paying a tv “tax”

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one

The Brits have already included laptops, phones etc

@random that’s why nothing will change here, cos people like you don’t know the meaning of sacrifice. Can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Pussy nation.

Rte is rubbish

It’s just another tax – I don’t understand the need for it. What if a household/business had no TV’s and no internet? Would they still have to pay? Why if they’re not using it?? Should follow the example of New Zealand which abolished the TV license in 1999 as there were concerns about how the state broadcaster was using it. Sound familiar??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#New_Zealand

I’m not interested in paying for a TV a licence to watch Irish telly,or any government media.
I’ve never paid and I shall never pay taxes to any government for using a monitor in my crib.