Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am somewhat confused. The joint committee commenced pre-legislative scrutiny of the broadcasting (amendment) Bill on 11 July. It was attended by my Department officials, representatives from RTÉ, TG4 and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. A further hearing was held on 3 October with the platform operators, Virgin Media, Sky, Eir, Vodafone, and TV3 to discuss both the scheme of the Bill and retransmission fees. That report is awaited. To be fair to the committee, it did seek legal advice on retransmission fees as part of its pre-legislative scrutiny, but I am waiting. It is to deal specifically with the €40 million shortfall. I am willing to move quickly on it. If the committee would return its report to me, then we can start working on it. I thank Deputy Dooley for his support on this and urge colleagues to refer that report back to me as quickly as possible so we can move on it.

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