Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

TETRA is very important. It has been developed to address the need for confidentiality. It has benefits in that it allows communications between emergency services that will be more effective and allows them take place in areas where there were poor levels of reception, all positive and important features. The new service is more secure because it is encrypted, so Garda radio channels cannot be monitored, thus ensuring a higher level of confidentiality.

One drawback pointed out by the Garda in a press release is that there is no GPS attached to TETRA. The dogs in the street have satellite navigation capability so it is important the communications system would have GPS whereby if a Garda was in difficulty, he would be easily identifiable and could be assisted promptly.

The Minister of State washed his hands of any responsibility in his speech, as did ComReg. The negatives of TETRA also relate to poor television reception, especially for people living in areas close to Garda stations or other TETRA base station, which is virtually every small town in the country. They will experience a degraded terrestrial television reception if they have an unfiltered wide-band mast head amplifier installed with their television aerial. Anyone who has a cable or satellite television system that is not directly connected to a terrestrial television reception system will not be affected but the areas close to Senator O'Reilly's heart and that of Councillor John O'Hare have thousands of elderly people who are reliant on their televisions to prevent loneliness and they rely on terrestrial television services. Councillor O'Hare has told me about an elderly constituent who is experiencing severe disruption to his television reception. Before TETRA was introduced into the area, he never had a problem. It was disingenuous of the Minister of State to say the horse had already bolted and people should install filters because these people previously had perfect reception. It is unfair they must now buy this filter. Previously such people could receive RTE1, RTE2, TV3 and TG4. As a result of TETRA being introduced, the poor old man Councillor John O'Hare mentioned cannot watch any television because the quality is so bad. I have the letter the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources sent when this issue was raised. It states:

I am advised that the Commission for Communications Regulation have already dealt with a number of complaints about television reception from the TETRA network. The problem stems from the use of independent wide-band mast head amplifiers. ComReg advises that the use of a suitable filter will alleviate the interference problem.

It is nice of the Minister to highlight the need to buy a filter. Why is it the responsibility of the old man to get a filter when there was no problem before the new system was installed?

The independent wide-band mast head amplifier the Minister referred to can be found on many homes to receive television stations from outside the State, normally near the Border, or where the user wishes to split television signals between serial television sets. According to ComReg, the connection between the wide-band mast head amplifier and poor television reception is due to the amplifier taking in unwanted nearby signals from outside the television band. The Minister of State has mentioned that it can be the neighbours' fault that a person has bad reception. That is outrageous, there was no problem before TETRA was installed. This causes the amplifier to be overloaded and, as a result, it performs incorrectly, leading to poor television reception.

The Minister of State advises anyone experiencing this problem to install a filter to alleviate the problem. This filter must be located between the aerial and the mast head so that unwanted signals from sources such as TETRA, mobile telephones and private radios are prevented from overloading the mast head amplifier. However, ComReg notes that the special filter to which the Minister of State referred must be physically installed before the installation of a mast head amplifier and that placing the special filter after the mast head amplifier has been installed will not improve television reception. ComReg states that television reception systems traditionally have been installed in such a way that they account for conditions present at the time of installation. This means that a filter would not have been installed unless a signal that could overload an amplifier was present at the time of installation.

For a person experiencing television reception problems as a result of TETRA, the cost for installation of a filter, as recommended by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and ComReg, is approximately €120 to €150. Councillor O'Hare's constituent is only one of the many thousands of elderly people living in the Cavan-Monaghan area who are experiencing this problem. According to ComReg, the only other option available to a person who does not have the means to install this filter is simply to remove the mast head amplifier. Why should people have to spend €150 to place a filter on their system when they had no problems beforehand?

There was no consultation with people in these areas. I blame the Government for this, especially the Green Party. There was no consultation with ordinary citizens who were simply told they would have to install a filter. The Government should compensate people to the tune of €150 so that they can install this filter and restore their television viewing.