I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 22 and 23 together.
The only complaint I received from this association was about reception from two piped television systems serving their area. The statutory responsibilities of my Department for cable television systems are limited to licensing such systems and ensuring that operators comply with the conditions of their licences, including technical conditions.
So far as reception is concerned, the technical conditions attached to licences are designed to ensure that the television signals picked up at the masthead are not downgraded while being relayed to the service point in customers' homes, that interference is not caused by the system to other apparatus and that the system complies with safety requirements. I have no reason to believe that the two systems serving this area are not technically efficient and I do not propose to take any action about the complaint.
I might mention that reception from any piped television system depends firstly on the strength and consistency of the signals available at the masthead and secondly on the efficient relay of those signals to subscribers to the system. The quality of the BBC and IBA signals available off air at the masthead is, of course, completely outside my Department's control.
I understand that the two cable companies which serve the area in question have advised that reception on the two cable systems is satisfactory at present. They say that reception had been adversely affected by the quality of signals available off air but this has improved recently following (1) correction of a fault in the Divis transmitter in Northern Ireland and (2) connection of the systems to alternative masts where better quality signals are available. This latter step was made possible by the Government's decision in August, 1973, to revoke the 500 home limit previously imposed on cable systems.