Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

To say the Minister's attitude towards this issue has been lethargic is an understatement. The response when I tabled the same question on 13 October was more or less the same with a few slight amendments, which do not offer anything new. We do not know whether licences will be auctioned or will be granted on a roll-over basis and we do not know anything about the spectrum allocation generally, which also needs to be addressed by the Minister in the context of the renewal of existing licences. Since the Boxer consortium pulled out of the process for the commercial provision of DTT services on a multiplex structure that RTE was to provide through its network, there has been little or no progress. The Minister said negotiations are ongoing between One Vision and RTE on the one hand and One Vision and the BAI on the other.

Will the Minister please outline some dates in order that people's attention can be focused and a target date is ensured by which the switch off of the analogue service will be facilitated? Does the Minister agree with RTE that a free to air multiplex service should be launched at the same time as the three commercial multiplexes, which, hopefully, One Vision will provide?

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