Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

As the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, stated, the Irish public has long enjoyed the happy accident of the overspill of UK analogue services. The UK will switch off these services over the next five years. This has nothing to do with the roll-out of Irish DTT. It is simply the actions of the UK authorities in planning for their spectrum use. Some DTT overspill is likely to be available in the future. However, enacting this legislation will create a framework for a multichannel framework on DTT in Ireland.