Dubliners have recently been searching online for ways to avoid paying the TV licence.
RTE has been embroiled in major controversy after it was revealed that Ryan Tubridy was paid an extra €345,000 through a barter account.
Since the scandal broke, there has unsurprisingly been plenty of debate about the TV licence in Ireland. Figures from An Post show that the TV licence generated €152m in revenue last year.
Failure to pay your TV licence can result in a court date and land you a fine of up to €1,000. Despite these serious penalties, plenty of people around the country have been searching for ways to avoid paying the €160.
Read more: Ryan Tubridy and agent Noel Kelly offer to help Oireachtas Media Committee
Research from Casinos.com's SEO and analytics team examined the metrics across a seven-day period for search queries relating to not paying the Irish TV licence. This was measured for every county in Ireland, with search volumes adjusted for population in order to represent fairer results.
According to the research, Cavan had the highest search volume for queries relating to avoiding TV licence payment, followed by Westmeath, Dublin, Limerick and Kilkenny. It found that over 500 people a month search for how to avoid paying their TV licence in Ireland.
A spokesperson for Casinos.com said: "We began measuring the daily search volume for this research a few days after the news about RTE made headlines in June. It became clear that people some counties were searching for how to avoid paying the TV licence more than others and this volume of people will only increase in the months ahead you would expect, especially in the aftermath of what has happened at RTE.
"People will be far less willing to part ways with €160 now that they know where some of it goes. With that said, it’s important to note also that the volume of people searching how to avoid paying the TV license is still very low, so it’s a very small percent of the population who are actually Googling this.
"Likewise, just because some counties did not appear to be searching for it during our research phase doesn’t mean they wouldn’t appear during a different testing period.”
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