Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues I welcome the Minister and representatives from RTE. I wanted to raise the same issue because it has been covered in great detail, particularly for the south west, but it was brought to my attention by a colleague in Waterford, Councillor Michael Joseph O'Ryan, who has been leading the campaign in the Nire valley in particular, where there is a similar problem. This has become so acute that people in the Ballymacarbry and Nire valley area will lose the signal. Many of them are elderly and are operating off aerials. In the last week, Councillor O'Ryan sent a petition to the Minister to ask that the analogue signal not be turned off in that area on those boosters until there is a solution to this. From what I heard earlier about upgrading in Cork, there was a similar problem in Kilmacthomas and that has been addressed by the provision of new transmitters. The problem remains, however, and I know there are parts of Donegal that will suffer. I wanted to bring this element to the attention of the committee and Minister. I appreciate much of it will be in the south west; my wife comes from Castletownbere and I know it well. It is not even possible to get TV3 on an aerial in Castletownbere so there is a real problem in the south west but it also exists in the south east.