Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

It is a contract negotiation arrangement, which is commercially sensitive. I am dissatisfied at the long time it has taken and I want to see an outcome quickly. We will be switching off our analogue system at the end of 2012 because the economic cost of using that spectrum for broadband is so significant that we cannot afford not to make that happen.

I agree that the preferred outcome is one where we combine a free-to-air service with a commercial platform which helps cover RTE's transmission costs. This was set out in the legislation. I do not have complete control of that process but I believe it must be decided within a maximum of three or four weeks because we are running into timelines where it starts to be difficult to meet the overall objective.

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