Vol. 515 No. 5
35 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands her nominees to the project management group established to oversee the separation of the existing transmission function from RTÉ; the progress, if any, made by the group; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6300/00]
The project management group established by Government to oversee the establishment of a digital terrestrial television entity in Ireland is chaired by an official of my Department. The project management group also includes representatives of my Department and the Departments of Finance, Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Public Enterprise, along with RTÉ.
A considerable amount of work has been done in identifying the assets to be transferred to the new entity. The preparation of an information memorandum was put in train. Arrangements were made to ensure that the decisions of the project management group would be informed by the concerns of the staff in RTÉ who would likely be transferred to the new digital transmission entity. Considerable work in developing the structure and management of the transaction to select the majority partner in the DTT, platform was carried out. The transaction structure had to be such that it ensured that RTÉ and Teilifís na Gaeilge would obtain fair value for the assets to be transferred to the new entity. In addition to this requirement, it is crucial that the transaction framework satisfied legal and regulatory requirements at both a national and European Union level.
The development of a transaction process that satisfied all the requirements and the participants on the project management group and met the Government objectives in introducing digital terrestrial television has proved to be a difficult and complex task. I have, with the advice of the project management group been considering how best to progress the establishment of a DTT platform and have sought the observations of some of my Cabinet colleagues on a possible way forward. If and when I decide that it is necessary to bring proposals to Government to progress the matter further, I will do so.
