TV license inspector's aggressive manner

Yeah - must be hard to track down those people with tv sets.

My Dad had awful trouble with TV license inspectors and letters. He had about 4 calls from inspectors. He is blind and doesn't have a TV. He told them this when they called. Then he started getting letters so he went into An Post three times and explained this to them too. He was told that since he had an arial on his roof (from a previous owner) he had to have a license. He told them that if they paid for him to get the arial removed then he'd happily get rid of it. He didn't hear from them for a few years and a few weeks ago has started receiving letters. At this stage he's fed up and embarrassed to have to go into An Post and explain his situation so he's going to ignore. They have a complete block about people not having a TV - How do they survive!!!!!!!!!!!!

Them stupid ads on the TV don't help either giving people the impression that the inspector can walk into your house without even knocking on the door, and the so called friends that start poking fun at them because they have no TV license. A TV LI called to my uncle many years ago and asked had he a TV, he replied yes and allowed the LI in as they were walking in the hall the inspector asked is it black and white or colour? It's brown and grey replied my uncle.

i had this licence problem for 2 years and i had my licence paid ,numerous phone calls to them giving license no and dates paid their agent was out 3 times with me showed him paid up license,s still no satisfaction so i copied licenses and sent them with a real nasty letter and told them to sue me if they want, i was hoping they would take me to court

Take a look at http://www.audgen.gov.ie/documents/vfmreports/47_TVLicence.pdf if you really want to know how the National Database of TV licence-holders is compiled (Page 22) and how the Inspectors operate (Page 34).

Very pertinent link!

Interesting to see that the estimated evasion rate in 2003 was 12%.

Some other interesting info:

In most cases where evaders are detected and do not quickly purchase a licence, An Post
commences prosecution proceedings. Analysis of a sample of prosecution cases in 2002 showed
that about half of the summonses were returned unserved. No further action was taken in these
cases.

...

Details of prosecution activity are not recorded on the database, even though there is a facility to enter such data. This hampers enforcement activity as the database cannot produce lists of individuals who have not purchased a licence and have not been successfully prosecuted or conversely, individuals who have been prosecuted but have still not purchased a licence.

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Television dealers in Ireland are required by law to notify An Post of each transaction for the sale or rental of a television, and to provide full details of the purchaser or renter. However, enforcement of this process was discontinued because An Post felt that the data being provided was unreliable or unusable.

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I've seen the notification requirement mentioned before but the last few times that I bought TVs I don't remember being asked for name/address details.

Up to the middle of 2002, An Post operated a policy of limiting the number of summonses
applications for administrative and cost reasons. The limit for the Dublin region was 500
summons applications per month. As a result of this policy, summonses were not sought in 32%
of cases listed for prosecution in February 2002, even though no licence was purchased. This
policy significantly reduced the summons application rate, and the likelihood of an evader being
prosecuted.

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Having browsed through the report and the various TV license discussions here on AAM it makes you wonder if there might not be an easier and more cost effective way to fund public service broadcasting...

agreed. rte should collect their own licence fee and an post should just be a payment option ie like esb or mbna credits cards etc. think an post tried this a few years ago but rte wouldn't bite.