asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will indicate what steps he proposes to take to ensure the development of Irish-sponsored television in this country.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Irish-Sponsored Television.
I have not so far had an opportunity of giving any detailed consideration to the question of television and I am not, therfore, in a position to indicate when, or in what form, a television service may be established here. I should like, however, to take the opportunity of mentioning some broad aspects of the problem which appear to me from a preliminary examination to be of particular importance. First, there is the question of cost; all the information I have been able to obtain indicates that television is an extremely costly service to establish and run and it is very doubtful whether this small country can afford it at this stage, or at least whether the heavy public expenditure involved could not be used to better advantage in other directions. Secondly, television is still very much in the experimental stage and there is much to be said for a policy of waiting and profiting from the experience of other countries. A good deal of time, thought and money is being devoted elsewhere, for instance, to the international sharing of programmes, to the development of colour television, whilst the old problem of transmission standards still exists. There is also the large question of commercial television and of its relationship to public service organisations. It would seem very desirable that we should wait and watch what happens across the channel when the new system gets going there. Thirdly, until the Government has had the time and opportunity to consider policy in regard to television fully, it is obviously undesirable that we should allow the position to be prejudiced in any way and it is accordingly proposed not to issue licences to commercial interests or others for television broadcasting, even experimentally. No useful purpose would, in our view, be served by having tests made at this stage. We do not believe that such tests would add anything worth while to our knowledge of the technical problems. Finally, I believe it would be premature to inaugurate an Irish television service until we are in a position to offer programmes with a distinctively Irish character and worth offering to the Irish people.
Television has been the subject of close study by my Department for some years. I propose to encourage the Department to continue this research, to maintain intimate contact with developments abroad—we are particularly well-fitted to do this by virtue of our membership of the Administrative Council of the European Broadcasting Union—and to furnish regular reports to me upon the position as it affects Ireland so that at the appropriate time I will be able to make recommendations to the Government.