Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

We have carefully thought about all the matters the Deputy mentioned. Various bodies with responsibilities in the area are developing their policies and working on recommendations and advice.

Deputy Broughan asked about the pilot project in 2002-03. My predecessor launched a competition for DTT in the private sector to gauge a response. There was no response to that from the private sector. The UK ploughed ahead in a similar experiment and lost some €2 billion. When I came into office I set about asking ComReg to put in place the regulation that would allow us to set up a pilot scheme. We carefully laid out all the tendering procedures and allowed people to tender for the pilot, to construct the platforms. From autumn we will be in a position to roll out the pilot scheme. I have done the research and organised a pilot scheme because I want to ensure that when we do this, we do it properly. A pilot scheme is a fairly conventional way of ensuring that.

If we are going to full digital television, DTT, every house will be affected. If we go that route, everybody will have to change from analogue televisions to digitised sets.

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