Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are writing to the Department to ask it to clarify and correct the record. We are going to write to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to confirm its understanding of the situation, because it was referred to by the Department, which I do not think was correct. We will also write to Dee Forbes of RTÉ because all the senior people from RTÉ were here and they had to know that there was no request to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland because it had not even made a request to the Minister to have RTÉ 2+1 put onto the Sky platform. I put in a parliamentary question the other day and received a written answer on Tuesday night. The Minister said, however, that to date he has not received any formal proposal from RTÉ requesting permission to transmit an RTÉ 2+1 channel. In the Dáil on Wednesday night, the Minister said no such proposal had been lodged. Both RTÉ and the Department allowed the discussion to take place as to where the process was. I gather that informal discussions may have taken place but a formal proposal was never made so I am asking RTÉ to clarify its position. Specifically, I want to ask it if there is such a thing as an RTÉ 2+1 channel, because somebody has told me it does not even exist yet, never mind being on the Sky platform. We want the record to be corrected and we do not want there to be a lot of beating around the bush, referring to context and background, etc. What was said on the record was not accurate and it is to be corrected and apologised for. We will accept it in good faith if we get straight answers. I take it that is agreed, as I have gone through the stuff and members will see I have been on the case.