Vol. 470 No. 6
26 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the current position in relation to Cablelink; the plans, if any, there are to demerge the company from Telecom Éireann, as recommended by Forfás; if the demerger of the company is effectively precluded by the terms of the Telecom Éireann strategic alliance with KPN/Telia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19576/96]
Telecom Éireann currently owns 75 per cent of the share capital of Cablelink with the remaining 25 per cent being held by RTE. RTE's shareholding is, however, subject to an agreement which gives RTE an option to require Telecom Éireann to purchase the shares at market value. This option must be exercised by July 1998.
The Forfás recommendation is, in fact, a conditional one. In its report entitled Telecommunications and Enterprise, Building and Investing for Our Future it states that "Telecom Éireann should be required to sell its interests in Cablelink unless it can show a development plan for the delivery of a broad range of advanced services on an integrated basis."
The Government, in its mandate for the strategic alliance negotiations of July 1995, stated that Cablelink should be the subject of a separate dynamic business plan. This plan should lead without undue delay to the development of a platform for delivery of a range of communications services and which is open to a variety of competitive service providers on a nondiscriminatory basis. I believe that this objective can be achieved without a change in ownership of Cable link.
