Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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682. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the method used to calculate the annual payment of over €50 million to RTE for the free television licence; if it assumed that each person in receipt of a social welfare payment eligible for the scheme has a television without checks; and the reason the figures provided in the recent reply received by this Deputy on this issue as the annual amounts are remarkably similar and are not divisible by the television licence fee. [39124/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. Customers receive their free licence directly from my Department upon qualifying for the household benefits package and their entitlement remains valid for as long as they continue to receive that package. There are 429,463 customers in receipt of the free television licence as of July 2017.

My Department pays a fixed amount of €4,432,046 to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment (DCCAE) on a monthly basis. In addition to paying the DCCAE, this fund is also used for the payment of TV Licence refunds to customers. Eligibility for a refund on a license already purchased is based on the approved date of the Household Benefits Package.

In 2011, expenditure for the TV licence scheme was capped at 2010 levels and was subsequently cut by €5 million in the 2014 Budget. Prior to the cap and the cut to funding payments were made to DCCAE on a monthly basis using an agreed formula based on a percentage of the Department's customer base. This formula took into account the savings to RTE and An Post on costs of administration, enforcement and collection of the licence fees for this cohort of customers. In Budget 2017 an additional €1 million was made available to increase the payment made to DCCAE.

My Department is currently reviewing the funding levels along with the DCCAE. Any decision to increase the payment will have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.