Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I appreciate the Minister's response and thank him for coming into the House to deal with this issue. The challenge I wish to bring up is that while nationally 98% of the population is unaffected by this, unfortunately in my area 98% of the people will be affected and only 2% will not be affected. The inverse applies in my area and that makes the situation difficult to deal with.

I appreciate the Minister's response, it contains some helpful pointers. It is progress that TG 4 will become available. I will take up the issue of some of the deflectors in the area with RTE, but there are additional costs and many people will end up having to get the Saorsat service. The majority of my constituents who will have to get the Saorsat service will have to fork out an additional €300 or go to SKY, where the basic package is approximately €288 a year. Therefore, it is much of a muchness financially. My constituents will be at a big disadvantage when this happens, but that is not what I wish to see for them. I thank the Minister for his response and will take him up on the offer to engage in further communication on this.

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