<P> In Ireland, a television licence is required for any address at which there is a television set . In 2016, the annual licence fee is € 160 . Revenue is collected by An Post, the Irish postal service . The bulk of the fee is used to fund Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the state broadcaster . The licence must be paid for any premises that has any equipment that can potentially decode TV signals, even those that are not RTÉ's . The licence is free to anyone over the age of 70, some over 66, some Social Welfare recipients, and the blind . The fee for the licences of such beneficiaries is paid for by the state . The current governing legislation is the Broadcasting Act 2009, in particular Part 9 "Television Licence" and Chapter 5 "Allocation of Public Funding to RTÉ and TG4". Devices which stream television via internet do not need licenses, nor do small portable devices such as mobile phones . </P> <P> The 2011--16 government planned to replace the television licence with a Public Service Broadcasting Charge on all primary residences and certain businesses . A public consultation document on the plan was published in August 2013 . Asked in December 2014 about the delay in switching from the licence to the new charge, Minister of State Joe McHugh said the government would "be taking more time to work out a very complex system". Implementation of the broadcasting charge was postponed in 2015 but returned to the political agenda in 2017 . </P>

When do i need a tv licence ireland