Results 26,161-26,180 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan
- Written Answers — Official Engagements: Official Engagements (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: In the context of the development of broadcasting policy in the past three years my officials and I have had cause, on a regular basis, to meet with the various interests that comprise the broadcasting sector including but not limited to commercial broadcasters, public service broadcasters and independent producers. I am not in a position to inform the Deputy on the precise number of...
- Written Answers — Official Engagements: Official Engagements (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: As Minister with responsibility for policy in the postal sector, and as the main shareholder in An Post, both I and my officials regularly meet representatives from An Post to discuss a range of matters of importance to the company. These meetings cover the full range of postal issues, from corporate governance to wider postal policy issues. The Government's core policy goal for the postal...
- Written Answers — Postal Services: Postal Services (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The Government's core policy goal for the postal sector is to ensure that Irish customers, both business and residential, enjoy competitively priced, high quality postal services. Legislation is currently being drafted in my Department to transpose the third Postal Services Directive which mandates opening the postal market to full competition from 1 January, 2011 and provides for a...
- Written Answers — Digital Terrestrial Television: Digital Terrestrial Television (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: Part 8 of the Broadcasting Act, 2009 provides for the development of digital terrestrial television in Ireland. This Act requires RTÃ to provide a national 'free to air' digital service with capacity to carry RTÃ 1, RTE 2, TG4 and TV3 by the end of 2011 or such later date as I may specify. The RTÃ 'free to air' digital service is to replace the existing analogue terrestrial television...
- Postal Codes. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: A smart economy requires that the underlying infrastructure supports enterprises based on knowledge and innovation. For this, an ability to collate and assess data spatially is a prerequisite and postcodes can play a key role and can deliver economic and social benefits across the whole economy. Ireland is the only country in the EU that does not have such a postal code in place, but as the...
- Postal Codes. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: I must be careful because within a week we will start a competitive process which should deliver quickly in terms of the exact system we introduce. Given that it will be within a competitive process I must be careful not to skew the result one way or the other. The case is not as set out by Deputy Coveney. I agree with the Deputy that post codes are right for this country and that as well...
- Postal Codes. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: I am not rejecting any accurate system. It will be up to the competitive tendering process to decide on which system. I have had several good conversations with the Data Protection Commissioner, who has the important job of protecting people from invasion of privacy. That can be done while still delivering a system with the level of accuracy we need for locational code purposes and in the...
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, was established on 1 October 2009 under the Broadcasting Act 2009 as the new statutory body to regulate the broadcasting industry in Ireland. The budget set by the authority's predecessor, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, BCI, for 2009 amounted to â¬6.238 million. That budget was prepared on the basis of a full year's operation although it...
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: I agree with the Deputy that every organisation must be conscious of costs in these difficult times and keep budgets tight-----
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: -----and live within them. The chairman and chief executive of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland are aware of that fact. They are committed to examining every aspect of their business, ensuring that they pare the costs down to the bare minimum and that the final outcome in terms of expenditure could be below what has been estimated. They will publish an initial estimate but they are...
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The budget for last year was â¬6.238 million for the full year. The BAI was only in operation for the last quarter. The budget from April to September, therefore, was set at approximately â¬4.550 million and the remaining budget of approximately â¬1.5 million - the accounts have still to come in - was the estimated cost for that fourth quarter. It was largely met from cash flow...
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: It was legislated that the new body would not be paid by direct Exchequer payment, and provision was made for that in the accounts for last year.
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The interim payment was made through existing cash flow resources the authority had. The levy was always due to be applied. It will be paid quarterly, with the payment being applied to the previous quarter. The first payment in the first quarter this year, therefore, is retrospective.
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: That will apply for each quarter. There is also the provision that where there is an underspend, that amount can be refunded to the industry to ensure it gets the benefit from savings that should, and I am sure will, accrue.
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The Broadcasting Act, 2009 requires the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, an independent regulatory authority, to provide for the development of commercial digital terrestrial television services. On foot of this requirement, the BAI's predecessor, the BCI, launched a competition, which is still ongoing. As the Deputy is aware, the highest placed consortium in the competition withdrew...
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The conclusion of the process is essential to provide certainty for broadcasters, suppliers and the general public with regard to the development of commercial DTT services in Ireland. More generally, it is my intention that analogue TV services will be switched off in late 2012. This will ensure a valuable digital dividend and it underlines the need to implement a DTT service.
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: I have already set deadlines. There is a deadline within the legislation we recently enacted for the switch on of a free-to-air digital service in December 2011. There is a deadline for us of 2012, which is when we will switch off our analogue system because the valuable spectrum we can then accrue for broadband and other purposes is of real importance to us. That is a certain deadline-----
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: -----and I said to each of the parties directly and clearly that, come what may, that deadline will be met. We will switch off our analogue services. In terms of the ongoing commercial negotiations between OneVision and RTE, it is the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland which will ultimately set the deadlines on that process. That, under the legislation, is what its authority is and it would...
- Broadcasting Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The 2012 deadline is real and absolute. It also gives any party involved a clear deadline to be able to effectively set up whatever alternative service comes out of this process. We are clearly coming very close to the time lines where we have to act immediately. A deadline is set for 2012 which would require all parties involved to make their minds up and make their commercial decisions...
- Telecommunications Services. (26 Jan 2010)
Eamon Ryan: The possibility of using the mobile phone infrastructure to broadcast messages to the public in the event of an emergency has been considered by my Department. Initial discussions with the industry indicate that this is not a simple task and that the infrastructure is not designed to broadcast short message service messages simultaneously to all users of the mobile phone network. It is...