Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

What the Minister has said does not get address the question we are asking. A formal letter was sent by the previous Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. This was not something at the Cabinet table; it was a formal letter sent to the Minister about an issue in which he was engaged. In that letter, the former Minister, Mr. Martin Cullen, said that he was opposed to what the Minister was doing. Unless there is an updated letter from the Department, one can only presume that is still the position of the Department responsible for sport. If that is not the case, I ask the Minister to tell us what the position is. Otherwise we must presume, as evidenced in the letter, that the Minister does not have the support of the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.

I ask the Minister to deal with two other related issues. On Newstalk the Minister stated on, I believe, 24 May, that he would appoint an independent expert. I ask him to give details about that. Today he said that free-to-air was the policy in Britain. I understand that an independent review was carried out there, which did not recommend the Heineken Cup for free to view.

Either the Minister is not up to speed on that or some change has taken place of which I am not aware.

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