Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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525. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the steps he is taking to ensure that the public interest is protected if he plans to hire a private firm to pursue non-payment of television licences; and his views on whether this is not an attempt to circumnavigate the courts system process which is open to persons that do not pay their television licence. [23004/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The prosecution process for non-payment of the TV Licence is dealt with under Sections 148-151 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 and I have no plans to amend these sections.

As the Deputy will be aware, I have obtained Government approval to proceed with the drafting of a number of legislative amendments to the Broadcasting Act 2009, including amendment to allow for the tendering of  TV Licence fee collection. 

Once these legislative amendments have been made, any subsequent tender will be processed in accordance with public procurement guidelines.

In addition, I recently asked the Office of Government Procurement to issue a Request for Information to see what services the market may be able to offer in respect of TV Licence collection. The result of this will help inform any tender process once the legislative amendments are in place to provide for a procurement process.