Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I want to comment on the remark made by the Minister that free-to-air should mean free-to-air. That is okay for the consumer, but it is not necessarily okay for the broadcaster, because free-to-air is not free-to-air. There is a great deal of expense involved in the provision of product that is broadcast to the consumer on a free-to-air basis. An issue arises for new networks, which will have a right under this legislation to re-transmit free-to-air programmes through a series of different platforms. We must consider the effect on broadcasters that are providing the free-to-air service but financing it through advertising or, in the case of RTE, through a combination of commercial revenue and licence fee money. That is the basis of my concern.

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