In relation to the number of stations, the Minister is on record as saying that seven stations would be adequate. The Minister has had quite some mileage, newspaperwise, on this whole issue, without giving any factual statement at all. Could he indicate if the statement of the Minister of State, Deputy Nealon, as reported in the national newspapers, in relation to 30 stations would be in line with the Minister's statements that he is in favour of seven stations? Could he give some indication of the number of stations that he anticipates?

I would be happy to clarify the position for the Deputy. The Minister of State at my Department, in answer to a question from the legislative committee, said then that the frequency spectrum technically could carry about 30 stations of different orders of magnitude. A misunderstanding got abroad from that that what the Minister of State said was that there would be 30 stations. Subsequently, in order to clarify the position I said that while the frequency spectrum could carry up to 30 stations, if we went by the IBA standards in Britain the figure would be rather less.

The Minister of State put his foot in it.

There are all sorts of criteria, including the listenership criteria. For the information of the House, because of negotiations that have been more or less brought to a conclusion, the frequency spectrum available would be much larger. We will now have five national VHF networks available to us, compared with three hitherto. We will also have other regional VHF networks available to us. The technical possibilities for the number of stations will be greatly increased.