asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs whether any consideration could be given to strengthening the power of the RTE sound transmitters for the benefit of the many Irish emigrants in Britain as reception is at present very poor there.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sound Broadcasts to Great Britain.
14.
This matter has been considered from time to time. About six years ago the strength of RTE's sound signal in Great Britain was substantially increased as a result of improvements in the earth system of the Athlone transmitter. Reception is, however, affected by interference caused by other stations operating on the same or adjacent wavelengths. Because of interference from foreign stations, reception of the RTE sound programmes was not satisfactory even in many parts of this country until a VHF transmitter network was provided in recent years.
I regret that it is not practicable at present to provide good reception of the Irish programmes in Britain. In this connection, I should perhaps explain that the Dublin and Cork stations are designed to give local coverage only and that the Athlone station is already operating at a power of 100 kilowatts, as provided for it in the Copenhagen Plan. Any increase in this power would require the agreement of the other administrations concerned, but the maximum power permissible under that plan for a medium wave station would effect little improvement in the quality of reception in Britain.
Is the Minister saying that it is impossible for the radio authorities here to transmit clearly to the one million Irish-born emigrants in Britain? Does the Minister say that this is technically and scientifically impossible?
At present the indications are that it would be impossible without breaking the Copenhagen Convention. If we did that, some of the sound transmissions from Athlone would cause interference with other stations. They would then strengthen their stations and we would suffer further interference.
I am just wondering how many Conventions have been broken. One can turn on many foreign stations much further afield than we are from Britain and get reception. If it is possible in the case of these other countries, how is it not possible to do this for our emigrants?
This is a very complicated matter to discuss at Question Time. It relates to the fact that if we were to strengthen our signal, this might interfere with the reception in other countries who might then protest and strengthen their signal to our disadvantage.
Since we are always talking about helping our emigrants, one of the best ways of keeping in touch with our emigrants in Britain would be to provide clear radio reception for them. It is not impossible, and I suggest the matter be examined forthwith.