Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I have similar concerns to Deputy Coveney's. The provision of digital terrestrial television services, DTT, has become a tangled issue. It is of necessity a complex issue but I am concerned it is complicated by the number of players involved. There is the unknown entity which will replace Boxer, the commercial interest, RTE, ComReg, the BCI, the new authority and the Minister.

Apart from the delay in its roll-out, this autumn people on the east coast will lose the access which they have enjoyed for a long time to the overspill in transmission of British television channels. Britain has got its act together while Ireland has not.

Other problems relate to costs, as has already been outlined, the timeframe and the loss to the digital dividend which has great potential. The roll-out of the service has been delayed because of what has happened to Boxer. While I do not blame the Minister for this, there is a question mark over the approach expressed in these amendments. Some of them are so far behind of what is required of us, it is becoming disturbing. Public awareness of this issue is zilch. The receiver boxes issue should have been resolved some time ago and now there is a new departure as to who is responsible for those.

I recall some years ago the broadcasting industry sought one person to take charge of this whole transformation. This mishmash of amendments tells us we need a type of DTT tsar to complete this project.

While an EU obligation in this area must be met, there are also issues for those involved in this transformation. They need to have a certain amount of information and security about what is involved. However, I get the impression because there are negotiations starting with RTE and Onevision we are into unknown territory. Allowing for all the caveats involved, will the Minister clarify the timeframe involved in this? How will it be managed? I do not believe there is a management structure in place to ensure we meet the deadlines.

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