Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 October 2016
565. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the rationale behind his decision to not add the Six Nations Rugby competition to Ireland's compulsory free-to-air sporting events list; if this decision was made after public consultation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28462/16]
View answerI am not proposing to make any change to the current status of the Six Nations Rugby competition in terms of those events listed for free-to-air broadcasting.
The current review was launched in June 2014 and involved a public consultation seeking submissions from interested parties on the current list and their views on the possible designation of the Ladies Football and Camogie Finals and the designation of Six Nations on a 'live' free to air basis rather than its current designation on a 'deferred' basis.
Consultants were engaged in October 2015 to conduct a full review of the current list, the proposals for designation and the 493 submissions received from interested parties. The final Report was submitted to my Department on 28 January 2016. As required by the legislation, I have consulted with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport prior to finalising my decision in this matter.
The proposed list will now be notified to the European Commission and, once notified, the Commission will have three months to consider the list and indicate whether it complies with EU criteria. In the meantime, the existing Order SI 99/2003 remains in force.
In relation to the Six Nations Rugby competition, the current contractual situation between Six Nations Rugby Ltd and Irish broadcasters is that the competition is available to RTÉ for broadcast on a 'live' free-to-air basis until the end of 2017 and, following that, will be available to TV3 for broadcast on a 'live' free-to-air basis for the period 2018 to 2021. In the event of any significant change to this position, it is open to me to review the designation.
