Ms Eleanor Bleahene:

It is ongoing. Our tendency to negotiate is sometimes influenced by our ability to negotiate. The must-offer provision obliges RTE to provide its services to a network provider that would take in cable on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Effectively, this means for free. We have a re-transmission arrangement with Virgin. That will be reviewed on an ongoing basis. Frankly, it is pending the outcome of RTE's request for a legislative review of the proposals, the wording around must-offer provisions, the removal of the copyright and section 103 must-carry provisions.

As Mr. Horsman outlined earlier, this race has been run in the UK. It has been repealed effectively by the way of the UK Digital Economy Act. The European Court of Justice has said that the provision in question is inconsistent with the provisions of the information society directive. We have a similar provision in section 103. As it stands, Ireland runs the risk of having proceedings taken against it if the provision continues to exist on the Statute Book.

RTE takes the view that it is a no-brainer to repeal it. The repeal is long overdue. The European Court of Justice has already said that it is incompatible with the provisions of the information society directive.