Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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1333. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prosecutions that were made in 2020 and 2021 for failure to pay a television licence. [30106/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998. The Courts Service is independent in exercising its functions, as of course are the judiciary, and as Minister for Justice I have no direct role in prosecution matters.Nor, the Deputy will appreciate, do I have any role in respect of enforcement in respect of the Broadcasting Act and television licences.

I am, however, informed by the Courts Service that the following table details the number of persons and number of offences before the District Court in 2020 and 2021 for not having a television licence.

The Courts Service note that data can only be provided where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. Prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences and any such offences would not be included in the above data.