Vol. 501 No. 6
314 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands if she has authorised the participation by her Department or any relevant State body in any public-private partnership; the number, if any, of these projects under way; if there are any possible public-private partnerships under negotiation between her Department and private investors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6716/99]
There are no formal public-private partnerships relevant to my Department. However, the Deputy may wish to note that, in line with the Government decision on broadcasting legislation, an interdepartmental project management group was established in August 1998 headed by my Department and including representatives of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Department of Finance, the Department of Public Enterprise and RTE to manage the separation of the RTE transmission network and the establishment of a new joint venture company which will be mandated to build and operate this country's digital terrestrial television infrastructure. The intention is that RTE will have a minority stake in the new company with the balance to be owned by one or more strategic partners, who will bring relevant expertise as well as finance to the operation. Consultants were recently selected to advise on the establishment of the new entity and part of their role will be to seek out and identify potential partner(s) and to negotiate the terms of any investment with the potential partner(s).
