asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs whether he is aware that Telefís Éireann reception is still very unsatisfactory in County Monaghan; when he proposes to remedy this deficiency; and what remedy he has in contemplation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Television Reception in Monaghan.
21.
As I said in reply to previous Questions of this kind it is the function of the Broadcasting Authority to provide a national television service. I understand that the Truskmore transmitter is at present operating on low power and that reception in the Monaghan area should improve in the near future when the transmitter is working at full strength.
If reception is not satisfactory in more isolated districts when the four provincial transmitters are on full power, the Authority will consider what further steps should be taken to give adequate coverage in those districts.
I would deprecate the description of any part of Monaghan as a remote area. There is nothing remote about it and it is not too remote for the BBC and UTV to provide services there. If my constituents are paying £4 a year for a licence, they are entitled to receive the programme from Telefís Éireann after a reasonable delay. They have not been getting these programmes since Telefís Éireann was established. The Minister is collecting £4 a year from these people and they can see nothing. When will the Minister use his power to require Telefís Éireann to provide programmes for these people to see or else divest himself of the power to collect this £4 a year?
There is no obligation at all to provide a service on the payment of the licence fee. The Act under which the fee is collected gives power for the collection of fees on any apparatus or portion of an apparatus in relation to broadcasting. That is the 1926 Act. The Authority are doing the best they can since the time they were established to provide a national television service but they have met with a good deal of difficulty. Their plans were delayed a good deal by non-delivery and by an accident or two in the erection of the transmitters. The Deputy well knows that they had great difficulty in erecting the last two transmitters. There is provision for booster stations, in addition to the four transmitters already erected, to be provided by the Authority in areas in which reception may not be perfect——
Now you are talking.
——and in areas in which reception may not be obtained when the four transmitters are in operation. The same thing will apply in other areas as well as County Monaghan. There will be pockets in which the reception will be poor or in which there will probably be no reception. They will have to be dealt with when the time arrives. However, that is a fairly substantial programme and the Authority will not be able to complete that work in any short period of time.
May I take it that, if Truskmore fails effectively to cover County Monaghan, booster equipment will be installed ultimately to provide an adequate service?
There is provision for that for County Monaghan, County Donegal and County Cork.
And the Minister will see it will be done?
It all depends on the amount of capital available to the Authority and other matters which they will have to take into consideration.
When you put on the sales tax, I suppose you will be able to pay for them.
The sales tax has nothing to do with that.