Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is trying to tempt me. The reduction of news and current affairs to below 20% of programming is something I would very much regret and on which I would make my views known. There are certain minimum levels of public service broadcasting that most stations should carry.

On digital services, the Deputy will be pleased that in the next three or four weeks I will be putting in place a few experiments relating to digital terrestrial television. We are talking in terms of setting a date for the changeover from analogue to digital and are starting to move in that direction. The Deputy is correct in stating that we need to give people plenty of notice to ensure both the consumers and the market know our direction in this matter. I will outline our plans in the coming weeks.

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