I am not aware that the introduction of Teilifís na Gaeilge (TnaG) has caused disruption to the reception of RTE 1 or Network 2, or to the television programme services provided by licensed cable and MMDS operators. The Deputy, may, therefore, by referring either to difficulties with the direct reception of television services coming from the UK or even to the re-transmission of those services by unlicensed UHF deflector operators.
The Deputy will appreciate that my primary role in the area of interference prevention is to ensure the clear reception of the Irish national services. In so far as it did not conflict with this role, we have made every effort not to impinge on the direct reception of television services from the UK when assigning frequencies to national services. I must make it clear that off-air reception of UK services in Ireland is something that is purely fortuitous. The UK authorities do not plan for the reception of their services here; these signals are simply overspills which can be picked up. Up to recently, because only two of the four Irish services were in operation we have not had to draw on our entitlement to these frequencies, and we were able to plan things so that off-air reception of both sets of national services was possible.