An Post collected €220.7 million in TV licence fees last year - most of which went to RTE.
The total number of licences sold was 951,454, while the Department of Social Protection paid for an additional 478,482, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts and the Media Catherine Martin revealed.
Over €150 million was raised from direct sales and €69 million from the Social Protection Dept, bringing the total figure to €220.7 million.
Read More: Cash-strapped RTE splashed over €110,000 on Late Late Show guests last year
The minister confirmed under the Broadcasting Act, An Post receives a 7% commission for administering the licence fee, while the rest goes mainly to RTE and a small percentage to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, (BAI), which supports both the Sound and Vision and Archiving schemes.
The €160 licence fee distribution for 2021 was €9.9 million to An Post, €14.7 million to BAI and a staggering €196.1 million to RTE.
In 2020 RTE reported total income of €331.1 million euros - 59% or €195.2 million from the TV licence fee and the remaining 41%, €136 million, in commercial revenue.
RTE is due to publish its annual report for 2021 and explain how all its money was spent in the autumn.
People have been increasingly reluctant to pay the licence fee because of the amount of repeats on RTE and lack of fresh new programming.
RTE is also one of the few state broadcasters in the world that gets both the licence fee and commercial revenue, while rival TV company Virgin Media has to rely solely on commercial revenue to survive.
UK rivals like the BBC, which gets the British licence fee, don't run commercial advertisements on TV or radio.
RTE has been losing money over the past few years, including a deficit of €7.2 million in 2019.
It returned to the black in 2020 during Covid with a €7 million surplus after a number of major sporting events were cancelled. Over 60 people also left as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme.
RTE had 1,866 full time employees at the end of 2020, up slightly on the previous year.
RTE director-general Dee Forbes wants more pressure put on the public to pay the licence fee.
About 70,000 people didn't pay it last year, costing RTE around €11 million in lost earnings.
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
