Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House and acknowledge the speed and efficiency with which he and his Department move to bring Ireland rapidly into the digital broadcasting age. I wholeheartedly welcome the broad thrust of the Bill. I hope its contents will be implemented as soon as possible.

I suggest we are slightly off the pace, particularly regarding our counterparts in the UK, who seem to be moving rapidly ahead and will begin the analogue shutdown as early as within the next 12 to 18 months. Like Senator Norris, I thank the director general of RTE for circulating a briefing note to all Members of the House in advance of this debate. It was extremely helpful not only in terms of the explanation of the various technical terms which we will confront in the Bill, but it also broadly presents RTE's public service broadcasting position on rolling out digital services. The Minister and his officials will be in regular dialogue with RTE as this process develops.

I strongly agree with the views expressed that in these developments radio is once again in secondary place. I fully appreciate the focus is and must be on the development of digital television. Over the next three or four years we must reach a point when the architecture will be in place for creating a new broadcasting authority and rolling out the multiplex in order that we are not left behind. The Minister is aware that when debate commenced on this issue three years ago, concerns were expressed that Ireland did not seem to have any mechanism in place to address it. That is why I compliment the Minister on moving so rapidly on the matter.

The issue raised by Senator Norris may refer to section 6 of the Bill which relates to the duty of commission for communications regulation in respect of digital terrestrial sound broadcasting multiplexes. Will the Minister address this seeming deficiency in the Bill? I appreciate the Bill makes several references to it, particularly in sections 14 and 15. However, they refer to amendments to a plethora of broadcasting Acts, and the explanatory memorandum does not provide more than the most general interpretation of what is intended. Will the Minister clarify in layman's terms exactly what will be amended?

My constituency falls within this context. This issue is not only about maintaining public service broadcasting but also about broadcasting to Irish communities abroad. Like most of my colleagues I travel to and from the UK regularly. If one issue animates the Irish diaspora in the UK it is the provision, as they see it, of RTE television services. They are like children who were halfway through an apple pie when it was taken away by an awful relative. Tara Television, a privately owned commercial cable company, operated on the Sky digital platform until 2001. It failed commercially. Irish people living in Britain do not fully understand or wish to be involved in the complexities of commercialism. As far as they are concerned they received an Irish service and then it was gone.

The reality is that while Tara Television did its best it had basic flaws. The main criticism made was that the programming schedule was extremely dated. People want current affairs and news programmes. In this age of instant communication when Irish people living in Britain can hop on an aeroplane and return home at a moment's notice, they want to feel they can also access the same sense of being Irish as those living in Ireland. I hope RTE bears this in mind and I hope it will be the provider of the new service for Irish emigrants in the UK and beyond.

I have every confidence that RTE, in consultation with the Department, will ensure that once the platform is up and running, the Irish in Britain will be provided with a valuable up-to-the-minute service which will take account of the various complexities surrounding the transmission of programmes outside of Ireland. I am sure the Minister is aware of the serious copyright issues involved. It will not be a simple matter of rebroadcasting RTE television services. The main reason is that if one takes two of the most popular soap programmes currently transmitted on RTE, "Coronation Street" and "Eastenders"——