Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

Section 149 provides for the operation of a fixed-penalty payment mechanism in respect of failure to hold a television licence in respect of the possession of a television set. A fixed penalty payment notice may be applied only after the issue of two reminder notifications and a minimum period of 56 days. The extent of a fixed penalty payment notice is capped at one third of the value of the extant television licence fee. There needs to be some incentive for people to pay the fee. We can be as nice as we want but at the same time we need to be pragmatic about what we are doing. I do not want to split hairs but while we could say people were jailed for not having a television licence, it might be more accurate to say they were jailed for not adhering to a court decision. I mentioned the fact that they are jailed for not adhering to a court decision and, as such, this is a matter for the Fines Bill. We are not trying to wash our hands of it. If a poll were carried out in Ireland 99.999% of the people would share Senator Norris's view. I do not disagree with that. However there is scope in the Fines Bill to address this issue. It is best left there and I am confident it can be done.