Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply and the fact that from August there will be a pilot DTT scheme. Why is the Minister just launching a pilot in the dying days of the Government and why has he not carried out the necessary research and preparation for the digital switch-over? What impact will the digital switch-over have on households? How many households will be affected? What percentage of total TV viewing households will be affected? Why has the Minister not decided on a switch-off date? He has been talking of the EU date, but the UK has a definite switch-off date for of 2012 and Northern Ireland and Wales will switch from analogue to digital in 2009, just three years away. In the committee discussion, I said the Minister was an analogue politician in a digital age. Is there a danger we will have a re-run of the broadband disaster? We are at the bottom of the EU league for broadband and will be the same for digital TV and broadcasting. Has the Minister's lethargy in recent years laid the basis for this?

Has the Minister given ComReg any role in this area? What is ComReg doing? Where are the reports such as we read from Ofcom, the BBC and the British Government, regular reports on public broadcasting in the digital age, for example? We have nothing similar here. It is a complete wasteland.

When we move to digital, the analogue spectrum will be very valuable. Has the Minister any plans in this area, or has he evaluated the best approach towards the management of our spectrum as the digital age develops? Will the Minister adopt a market-led approach with TV companies bidding, or how will he maximise the value to the country? For what uses should the switched-off spectrum space be made available? Will the Minister put the bulk of it into high-definition TV, mobile TV, or what? Within eight or nine months of a general election, has the Minister thought about any of these matters?

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