Brendan Kenneally (Fianna Fail)

I, too, wish to raise the decision made by ComReg in the past couple of days to discontinue services to parishes and communities throughout the country. Clarity must be brought to the debate. I will raise the issue tomorrow at the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural resources.

Technically, ComReg is within its rights in this regard, but it could have put more thought into the way it dealt with the matter. We must try to dispel some of the misinformation that exists. For instance, there is a suggestion that air traffic control was being affected, which cannot be the case because it operates on a totally different frequency. It has been a great service for many elderly and bed-ridden people throughout the country who can listen to daily mass being celebrated in their parishes, particularly during funerals because elderly people tend to know many people who have died and they cannot attend the funeral themselves. As it is a great comfort to them to be able to listen to the mass on the radio, it is a pity the service is being discontinued.

There is a suggestion that it is operating on a frequency on which a Dublin-based station may be rolling out throughout the country. I do not know if that is the case, but it is something that must be investigated. If it is the case, perhaps ComReg should have waited until the station was ready to roll out the service.

In the meantime ComReg should be making every effort to find some other frequency within which it can operate properly and legally. It has suggested that it will find a solution to the problem later in the year. However, the House should ask it to try to come up with the solution sooner rather than later.