Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 24 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 6

Written Answers. - Licensing of Deflector Systems.

Séamus Hughes

Ceist:

21 Mr. Hughes asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications whether the remit of the independent technical consultants nominated by the European Broadcasting Union will be extended to all other applications made by television deflector groups and not solely confined to the application of Southcoast Community Television. [19549/96]

Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications (Mr. Lowry)

The High Court decision in the Southcoast case obliges me to reconsider that particular application only. As I have said before I will have regard to the implications for other deflector systems which may arise out of the technical assessment that is being carried out by the independent consultants.

In this regard I refer the Deputy to the reply I gave in this House on 15 October 1996 to Question No. 302 which states the terms of reference of the consultancy in question.

The Deputy will note that the terms do, in fact, provide for a general analysis of the feasibility of licensing other deflector systems. It would, however, be premature to widen the scope of the work to include detailed assessments of other deflector systems pending the completion of the current project.