Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

I agree this is an extremely important matter. That is why it is being dealt with in the Bill and in amendment No. 36. I am sure RTE, as a public service, will show a clip on this evening's "Oireachtas Report" of somebody saying that Channel 6 can be found on channel 223 of the electronic programming guide. I was not aware of that. I sought out Channel 6 but I became fed up trawling through the various other channels.

Senator O'Meara's amendment is not needed because of the specifics of the legislation. The difficulty regarding the existing satellite system is that it falls outside of Irish regulation and, as such, we have no control over it. The current position obtains as a result of grace and favour on the part of Sky. We should acknowledge what Sky has done in this regard and its actions made commercial sense. Cable and DTT will come under Irish regulation and, therefore, this Bill, combined with the 2001 Act, will mean the EPGs relating to the cable and DTT networks will give priority to Irish stations. There will be no need to use terms such as "as far as is practicable" because it will be specifically stated.

Amendment No. 36 to section 9 involves a restating of paragraphs (c) and (d). While the restatements are not substantial in nature and while the fundamental meanings are not being changed, the word "continued" is used in the amendment. This is the case in order that the BCI can ensure multiplex providers will provide ongoing content and do not reduce it. The amendment also improves the drafting of paragraph (c). An operator that maintains a multiplex on a particular basis must maintain it at the initial level and cannot reduce its content.

Amendment No. 36 will change the provisions in paragraph (d) and stipulate that the BCI must consider issues around multiplex reception and compatibility across multiplexes. It is vital that all the television multiplexes in an area, including the RTE multiplex, can be seen on the one set-top box. The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, BCI, must seek to ensure that applicants take that into consideration in their applications.

It is also important that viewers can keep themselves informed of services across all the multiplexes in an organised and coherent way. Viewers do that through a menu or the electronic programme guide, EPG. These can be produced locally and automatically in the set-top box or created and transmitted to viewers in a controlled fashion over an overriding EPG. The provisions in paragraph (d) will now ensure both types of EPG must be taken into consideration by multiplex applicants and by the BCI when it is judging the application submitted.

Section 16 of the Broadcasting Act 2001 contains further conditions to ensure the priority of Irish broadcasting services on EPGs. This amendment Bill also proposes, in section 13, to apply section 16 of the 2001 Act to the DTT framework proposed. We are pulling three different Acts into place.

With regard to amendment No. 26 on the positioning of Irish broadcasting services and the electronic programme guides, I ask Senators to examine section 13 of the Bill. It provides that under section 16 of the 2001 Act relating to the electronic programming guides for existing broadcasting services, that will now apply to DTT services. That is not clear from the amendment Bill because one must refer to two other Bills. The existing provisions under section 16(5) of the 2001 Act remain, that is, that any EPG produced under this section may be easily used by members of the public to access the programme schedules of Irish broadcasting services. We do not even use the phrase "as far as practicable". It is important that it happens. It is already stipulated in legislation and we are just bringing it forward. That ensures that Irish broadcasting services will be in prominent positions. Since that provision already exists, Senator O'Meara's amendment is not necessary. The principle is an important one and it was important to include it in the Bill.