Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

We are progressing. We are starting the DTT service in October 2010, which is a crucial time. It will take time to test it and get it right before it is fully launched in a public way, that is, where we are pushing and selling it to the public. We are now on a tight time line. That gives us two and a half years from now before we switch off. It will be tight to get public awareness campaigns in place in order to inform people how it happens. Crucially, we have to first get the DTT service up and running. We had a series of meetings today and last week with RTE, the BAI and ComReg and we have set out a project management course, in terms of getting set top box regulations in place and clarity around which standards should be in place and what channels we will put on our public service.

When they are up and running we will engage in the very serious job of letting the Irish public know how it will be able to switch over. It is a two and a half year project. I very much regret that we were not able to get a commercial operator up and running, but given that we have not done so it is incumbent on us now to get our digital terrestrial service up and running, to let the Irish public know that and to see a whole range of enhanced services on it, such as higher definition television.

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