Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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148. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the person responsible for the administration of the television licence and the last time that the administrative operations of the licence were reviewed and-or audited; and his views on the records management and efficiency of the service and the cost of delivery. [10674/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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An Post is charged with the role of “issuing agent” in respect of the collection and administration of television licence fees in accordance with the provisions of section 145 of the Broadcasting Act 2009.

An Post receives a portion of licence fee as commission in exchange for its activities as the Minister's issuing and collecting agent for TV licences. The amount paid to An Post varies from year to year in accordance with the volume of TV licence sales delivered by An Post. The sales target and scale of commission payable for sales at each milestone up to, and beyond, the target are determined by annual Contract.

The accounts of the TV Licence Unit of An Post are audited on an annual basis as part of a full audit of all An Post business by its Auditors.

The administration of the TV Licence is subject to review and I am currently considering the approach to be taken on a range of matters in the area of broadcasting, including the proposed Public Service Broadcasting Charge. However, until I have completed this consideration and brought proposals to Cabinet for decisions, there will be no change in the current arrangements.

The TV licence database is maintained by An Post on behalf of the Minister. It contains records of all licensed properties, together with details of previous licensed properties which for a variety of reasons no longer have a valid TV licence. All data held is the property of the Minister and An Post constantly updates this data.

As you will be aware, the Government gave approval to my Department to prepare legislation to enable the TV Licence Collecting Agent (currently An Post) to access the subscription data held by TV service providers, including Sky and UPC.

The legislation will be designed to allow the Collecting Agent to have access to the information solely for its statutory functions in relation to licence fee collection and the commercial confidentially of the information will be safeguarded.

My Department will consult with the Data Protection Commissioner in due course in relation to the drafting of legislation to ensure that it takes full account of data minimisation and data security principles.