A minister and a TD say the decline in TV licence sales is linked to “scandal after scandal” at Ireland’s public broadcaster RTÉ. According to the claims reported, licence sales fall in 2023, the year in which the RTÉ secret payments controversy came to light. Figures cited show that TV licence sales decrease by 13% from 947,924 in 2022 to 824,278 in 2023. The statements frame the RTÉ controversies as a reason for lower take-up of licences, though they do not provide further causal evidence beyond the timing of the drop. The reporting presents the statistics as the key indicator of the change in behaviour by the public during the period when RTÉ’s internal payments issue became public. No alternative explanations for the decrease are included in the provided material, nor is there detail on whether the minister or TD specifies other influencing factors. The articles focus on the relationship between the broadcaster’s controversies and the fall in licence numbers.