Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Go raibh maith agat. As that was my last amendment I thank the Minister of State for the way he has dealt with the amendments, especially the ones I tabled. I am disappointed with his response to the final amendment and I urge him to reconsider as the amendment does not deal with the specific issues TG4 faces currently but it proposes to deal with problems it may encounter in future.

A major review of funding will take place after five years but there is a need to deal with the current shortfall. If we are able to get €6 million from Gordon Brown for Irish language broadcasting in the North where it does not even have official status and where there is no Irish language Act, I am sure we can squeeze a few euro from the Government to support our own Irish language broadcaster. I urge the Minister of State to consider other mechanisms that he has at his disposal to deal with the current shortfall experienced by TG4. I reserve the right to raise the issue again on Report Stage. I thank the Minister of State for the way he dealt with the amendments.