Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I wanted to come in on the discussion on digital radio and, to a certain extent, digital television. I am interested to hear that the BCI will be seeking commercial interest in digital radio roll-out. That is welcome but it flags a major problem we have regarding DTT and RTE's exposure because of the Boxer DTT withdrawal.

I realise we are moving slightly from the amendment but there is an obligation on RTE to have free-to-air DTT services up and running by the end of this year. It has already spent approximately €40 million rolling out the infrastructure and it will cost it another €60 million to €70 million to finish that job. That is only financially possible for RTE if it has revenue coming from a commercial operator also using that platform.

Does the same problem apply in regard to digital radio in terms of the cost of rolling out the platform, that is, masts and aerials, to provide a digital radio service? Is the financing of an RTE roll-out programme contingent on a commercial digital radio operator or operators doing a similar job to what Boxer DTT had proposed to do with DTT?

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