asked the Minister for Communications if he will confirm the name of the firm and the cost involved in the provision of the direct broadcasting satellite.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Direct Broadcasting Satellite.
21.
The company with whom negotiations have been conducted concerning the provision of an Irish satellite network is Atlantic Satellites Limited of 20 Lower Hatch Street, Dublin 2. As I stated in reply to a previous question by the Deputy on 19 February 1986 — Official Report, Volume 363, columns 3120-3122 the cost of the project will depend on a variety of factors yet to be determined, such as the configuration of the satellite network, the number of satellites to be launched, launch and insurance costs etc. The project will clearly cost several hundred million pounds, which will be the responsibility of the promoters.
What progress has been made regarding this matter and when will the Minister be in a position to sign a formal contract with Atlantic Satellites Limited for the provision of the direct satellite broadcasting facility?
That depends on the Government approving the final package. I hope they will have this matter before them in the very near future.
In relation to the final package, would the Minister envisage any involvement of Radio Telefís Éireann and Bord Telecom in relation to the facilities which will be provided by Atlantic Satellites Limited on this Irish satellite which will be launched it is hoped in due course?
Obviously what Deputy Leyden has put before us are possibilities. Clearly, there would have to be proposals from Bord Telecom Éireann or Radio Telefís Éireann and those proposals would have to be considered. The result would depend on a number of things. Apart from whatever Government sanction would be needed, it would also depend on their coming to a reasonable arrangement or agreement with the owners of the satellite.
Is the Minister as enthusiastic about this project as he may have been at the start? Does he feel it is a viable project and has job creation potential here? How many jobs does the Minister feel will be provided at the end of the day by Atlantic Satellite and what will be the final location for input into the satellite?
I am as enthusiastic as ever before. This whole satellite proposal reflects very well not only on the Irish public service but also on the political parties, on this and the previous Government, in the way it was handled. Deputy Wilson set up the satellite committee in his short term as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. That committee excelled themselves and produced an excellent report within a short period of months. The civil servants in my Department analysed and dealt with the question very expeditiously, as did the Government. This means, quite frankly, that we have got ahead of many of our competitor countries in the way this has been handled. Some of this dates back to 1977 when civil servants negotiated that deal for this country. So while there is a lot of criticism of political parties and the public service, here is a sterling example of very high quality service for which credit should be given.
I hope we can make an announcement in regard to this in the very near future. It would be wrong to say it will create hundreds of jobs or anything like that. We know there is a major potential in this for this country and it affords us an opportunity to get ahead of other countries. I do not know whether that potential will be realised because of the high risk nature of the project and also because it is very new technology. There is a lot of work remaining to be done. Even if we do give the go-ahead, funding has to be raised, there will be the launching of the project, the building of the satellites, the configuration of satellites and so on. Therefore, there is much to be done but, hopefully, the next stage will be resolved in the very immediate future. Then we can go ahead looking towards a possible launching.