Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I acknowledge the presence in the Chamber of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, to hear this presentation. The analogue television system is changing and we are moving to Saorview. The Minister has spoken in the House and responded to parliamentary questions on this topic from my colleague, Deputy Brendan Griffin. It is a big issue for people in west Cork and west Kerry in particular. RTE and Saorview have written to me confirming that 98% of the people in the country will be able to avail of the new service but 2% will not. Unfortunately, for those in west Cork and west Kerry, that 2% is primarily in our bailiwick and we are not satisfied.

An alternative arrangement is Saorsat, providing television services to the 2% not covered by Saorview. In total, 120 locations will be affected. Saorsat incurs significant costs for homeowners who wish to avail of it. Each household must pay €300 for Saorsat in comparison to the costs of those using Saorview. That amounts to three times the household charge foisted on many of my constituents in west Cork.

In addition, viewers will not receive the same service because they can only avail of two channels – RTE 1 and RTE 2 - and will not receive TV3 or TG4. The area has a proud sporting tradition, to which west Kerry has also contributed, and a language tradition so it is particularly ironic that we cannot receive TG4 in west Cork and west Kerry. It is a damning indictment of the proposals before us.

It is discriminatory that my constituents must pay an additional €300 when they will receive only half the service provided to their counterparts in the rest of the country. I appreciate that the Minister will say this is an operational matter for RTE but we know the relationship between the State and RTE. Furthermore, the licence there has been paid for years by the good people of Ireland. In west Cork, we have had many issues with RTE reception over the years. In Leap, a village near where I live, people fought for 20 years to get the RTE service. I was a teacher in Leap national school and one of the first essays I gave the children was on what the arrival of TV3 meant to them. I received a string of letters the next day welcoming me to Leap and telling me that they had only just received RTE 1 in the past six months. They spent 20 years trying to get the RTE service and fighting the good cause. They raised funds and had their own aerial erected eventually. RTE came on board eventually but now these people are being cut off. I plead with the Minister to talk to RTE about this matter, which involves cost. I do not want to see my constituents discriminated against.

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