Imprisonment will be the "last resort" for Government against those who do not pay their TV licence fee, the Minister for Public Expenditure has said.
Last week, new figures from the Department of Media showed that the number of people paying their TV licence fee had fallen nearly 40%.
Some 9,360 licences were purchased in the first seven days of this month – down from 15,030 the same week last year.
It represents a loss of €907,200 in just one week, which follows a fall in revenue of over €2.7 million in July versus the same month the previous year.
In all, TV licence income is down nearly €3.7 million since the RTÉ pay scandal broke in late June.
Today, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said the payment of a TV licence is still a legal requirement.
"Great care is taken by our courts before any decisions are made in relation to detention for the non-payment of television licence," he said.
"Those that are involved in overseeing those cases and reaching decisions on them take great care that any such detention or custodial sentences are the very last resort."
