Vol. 515 No. 5
40 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the value of the RTE transmission system; the capital grants provided by central government for the development of the system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6299/00]
Under section 23 of the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960, as amended, a total of £20,811,000 in repayable Exchequer advances was paid to RTE for capital purposes. The last advance was made in 1981. It is not possible to give a breakdown of the purposes of this expenditure at this stage.
Separately, non-repayable grants of £157,702 and £399,511 were paid to RTE as a contribution to the cost of the Tullamore medium wave transmitter and the Raidio na Gaeltachta transmitter network in the 1970s', respectively. Non-repayable grants totalling £13,330,527 were paid to RTE in respect of Teilifís na Gaeilge from January 1996 to December 1999.
All outstanding repayable Exchequer capital advances were repaid, with interest, by RTE in 1988. It would be inappropriate for me to place a value on the RTE transmission system.
