Results 1,741-1,760 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: There are many amendments in this grouping and I do not need to comment on some of them because they are technical. The one I am most concerned about is amendment No. 158. Is that part of the grouping?

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: I apologise. That is fine and I do not have an issue with the amendments.

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: I will focus on amendment No. 113, which gives us an opportunity to have a discussion on where we are with DTT. I have raised this issue with the Minister during Question Time as a result of the very difficult position that RTE finds itself in with regard to funding because of Boxer deciding not to go ahead with a contract for commercial DTT. Boxer was to provide the necessary equipment to...

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: Will the Minister accept that the whole DTT project will collapse financially because of the absence of a commercial DTT operator on the three remaining multiplexes? Why would anyone pay to switch over to DTT to get a public service digital product when the channels are already free on the analogue system? Why are we forcing RTE to spend a fortune to do this? Until Onevision, or some other...

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: -----as well as the infrastructural costs and so on. I understand what the Minister must do in respect of these amendments because of the uncertainty that now exists. However, I stress that in the absence of getting a commercial operator in place for DTT, the entire project begins to fall flat in its face. If the One Vision proposal is not going to produce a result, we must face up to...

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: It does not have the money to do it. While that is all well and good, there are cost implications.

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: I move amendment No. 129: In page 142, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: "140.—(1) The Authority shall prepare a report which shall be completed and laid before the Minister and Joint Oireachtas Committee within 12 months, on the most appropriate and efficient method of public funding for public service broadcasting. The report shall consider the following: (a) the funding...

Order of Business (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: There is.

Order of Business (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: I wish to return to a question Deputy Bruton asked.

Order of Business (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: It is. It arises from the sloppy treatment of sensitive personal data by Bord Gáis and the Health Service Executive, HSE, in the past two days which has resulted in bank account details of 75,000 people and the personal details of nine families being compromised. Last October Fine Gael published a data protection disclosure Bill.

Order of Business (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: I am coming to it. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle has allowed other people to have a preamble. In response to that Bill the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform set up a data protection review group and promised it would result in a legislative response from Government to cover data disclosure-----

Order of Business (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: The Leas-Cheann Comhairle should let me finish. It deals with data protection, disclosure and, potentially, encryption obligations, the absence of which has caused the latest data protection breach. A legislative response was promised and I want to know where it is now.

Order of Business (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: That is a separate issue.

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: I accept the Minister's point that the television licence fee has served us well in some ways in raising money. However, if we know there are inefficiencies in place and there is something like an incentive to evade paying a television licence fee, then we have a responsibility to respond to that and to change the policy. I do not want us to abandon the existing mechanism until we have an...

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: Why link it with any item? Why have the debate about televisions, laptops or PDAs? Why do we link the funding of public service broadcasting, which includes radio and television, to ownership of an item?

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: What is good for Britain is not necessarily good for us. Saying that the UK has examined this and has come to the conclusion that they should retain the licence fee and attach it to television ownership does not mean we should follow suit. The point is not that we should be charging for Internet connections or treat computers as televisions and charge for ownership of the technology but...

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: The best case scenario is that they are doing that and, if they are, it is a major waste of money. If they are not doing it, they are not enforcing the law. Either way, it is a farce to employ people to knock on doors. For a start, they cannot get into most apartment complexes. I am not prescribing the solution but asking the Minister to make a statement in this legislation that we will...

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: Has the Minister spoken to the amendment?

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: In amendment No. 147 I make the case that we would delete the section relating to the broadcasting fund, which states that the fund may not provide funding for programmes which are produced primarily for news or current affairs. News and current affairs programmes are continuing to make perhaps the most valuable contribution to public service broadcasting in Ireland. In RTE's case, it is...

Broadcasting Bill 2008 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Jun 2009)

Simon Coveney: I move amendment No. 147: In page 151, to delete lines 35 and 36. Question, "That the words proposed to be deleted stand", put and declared carried.