TV licence inspectors are to begin weekend visits to Donegal homes suspected of dodging the annual fee from tomorrow.
The new crackdown will see homes checked on Saturdays and Sundays for the first time after new figures showed 18.3% of homes in the county do not have a TV licence.
Kilkenny is the worst county in Ireland for dodging the fee at 25% of homes, while in Tipp just 5% don’t pay, the lowest.
However County Donegal is among the top six counties when it comes to evading the mandatory licence fee.
The TV licence costs €160 and the number of licenses sold has been steadily declining in recent years representing an annual loss of €40 million.
In 2014, more than 20,000 summonses were issued with just under 14,000 being brought to court.
Communications Minister Denis Naughteen said: “We’re three times higher than the the level in the United Kingdom and in Germany, when it comes to evasion.
“We have had independent consultants look at the existing database in the context of the local property tax register, the electricity meter register and to look at other ways of identifying people who may be evading the television licence fee.”
Weekend checks at homes in Donegal start from tomorrow.
Evening visits are expected to start from next month.
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