Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I listened with interest to what the Minister of State had to say and some of his points were valid. Given the proliferation of English channels here, there should be some reciprocity because there is a large Irish diaspora in Britain. Our television and radio stations should be readily available in that jurisdiction.

One of the issues that arose in the referendum campaign relating to the Lisbon treaty is that of the disconnect that exists. Most of the diet of foreign news we receive comes either from America or Britain. Unless there is a major catastrophe, we receive very little in the way of news items from the remainder of Europe. There is a need to bridge the gap. As the Minister of State indicated, the transmission of news programmes is facilitated by satellite. However, there is a need to consider the position as regards transmission by means of radio.

Members received representations, couched in reasonable terms, from people who maintain — there is no reason to disbelieve them — that they carried out their own testing on the strength of signals, etc. All the evidence with which we were supplied indicates that something went wrong during the changeover from medium to long wave and that the availability of signals has been curtailed as a consequence of this move. This is either fact or fiction. It appears to be a fact and I would lend my support to those who state that the Department should establish the position, one way or the other. If it is established as a fact, action should be taken to ensure that the national broadcaster is meeting its responsibility and applying sufficient power levels in order to ensure that signals can be received everywhere on this island and also by members of the Irish diaspora in the UK.