The decline in enforcement raises fresh questions over the effectiveness of the TV funding model, with new figures indicating that prosecutions fell just as licence sales plunged in the wake of revelations surrounding undeclared payments to broadcaster Ryan Tubridy.

An Post, which collects the annual €160 licence fee, altered its enforcement procedures at the height of the controversy due to incidents of “abuse and harassment” directed at inspectors.

The scandal, sparked two years ago this week, exposed hidden payments to Tubridy and spiralled into a wider crisis at RTÉ involving excessive corporate hospitality, the collapse of a musical production, and large exit packages for senior executives. Public anger over the revelations prompted more than 100,000 households to stop renewing their licences, creating a funding crisis at RTÉ that led to a government bailout to keep the broadcaster afloat.

Licence sales fell from 947,924 in 2022 to 824,278 in 2023. The figure dropped again last year to 792,243.

Despite efforts to increase enforcement under the current regime, the number of court cases also declined. In 2022, An Post submitted 13,709 summons applications and pursued 7,263 prosecutions. In 2023, this fell to 13,198 applications and 6,555 prosecutions. Last year, the figures declined further to 12,229 and 5,392 respectively.

An Post said: “It was the case that inspectors on the doors were taking quite an amount of abuse and harassment. Certainly we had to amend inspection activity during the period of the RTÉ issue – and there was a cohort of the customer base that was unwilling to take out or renew TV licences for that same reason. But we have seen that change and many of those customers have returned to being fully compliant and the inspection campaign has returned to normal.”

Although the Government decided last year to retain the licence fee, it also directed officials to explore potential reforms to the system.

The downward trend in licence sales has continued in 2025, with 329,956 licences sold by the week ending 6 June, compared with 335,400 in the same period last year.