Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he will provide details on the Broadcasting Bill; the reason the provisions for digital terrestrial television were not incorporated into the first proposed major Broadcasting Bill; if he will be presenting further proposals on the proposed new broadcasting authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5256/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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The draft general scheme of the Broadcasting Bill was submitted to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on 6 September 2006 for the purpose of public consultation under the eConsultation initiative.

The draft general scheme of the Broadcasting Bill includes provision to amend the existing public service remits of RTE and Teilifís na Gaeilge to allow them to develop broadcasting services for Irish communities abroad and allows public funds to be deployed for such a purpose. Given the scale and scope of the draft general scheme of the Broadcasting Bill, and ongoing work under the eConsultation initiative, the Government decided to extract and progress this small element by means of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2006.

In addition the Government, having finalised its legislative proposals in relation to the development of digital terrestrial broadcasting services in Ireland, decided that such proposals should also be incorporated into the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2006 which was published in December 2006.

I propose to introduce the Broadcasting Bill into the Houses of the Oireachtas in 2007 in the light of the outcome of the eConsultation process.