TV licence inspectors have faced 'very aggressive verbal abuse' on the back of the crisis at RTÉ.

Inspections had to be abandoned at various times last year with resilience training being provided to staff.

The national broadcaster was at the centre of numerous scandals after an external audit uncovered undisclosed payments to former presenter Ryan Tubridy.

Irish Independent Industry Correspondent Anne-Marie Walsh told The Pat Kenny Show inspectors were confined to 'non-contact visits' several times.

"They were halted at a number of periods, I believe, during the whole scandal and various controversies that we've seen," she said.

"I think what they did is they went up to the homes where they suspected a licence wasn't being paid and would put flyers or leaflets in to remind people and possibly then return to the office.

"Admin staff might then contact the person involved by phone rather than calling to the house and leaving themselves wide open to this sort of abuse".

'Challenging scenarios'

Ms Walsh said an external expert was brought in for resilience training of staff.

"They went through a number of real-life situations that the inspectors could face and challenging scenarios and ran through what they should do," she said.

"I did ask for guidelines that were separately given to staff by An Post but they didn't supply those.

"I suppose they see it as a private internal matter."

The RTE Television Studios in Donnybrook, 23-06-2023. Image: PA Images / Alamy

Ms Walsh said most of the problem was "verbal abuse but very aggressive verbal abuse".

"You'd imagine people carrying out this job day-to-day are subject to abuse and have a high level of resilience already," she said.

"So it must have just got pretty bad."

Ms Walsh said it also comes as staff there face an uncertain future.

"It's so up in the air and I do think the inspectors are the people who are there day-to-day on the coalface," she said.

"We've had all these [Oireachtas] committee meetings and people have been able to say they couldn't attend those, and then those that did attend are shielded from this reaction from the public.

"This is the bottom line, this is where people are really feeling the pinch when it comes to non-payment".

She added that the uncertain future of the licence fee payment system means there are "85 jobs at risk here as well".

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has previously said he's open to having Revenue collect the TV licence fee.

Main image: A TV remote control and screen are seen in September 2019. Picture by: Alamy