asked the Minister for Communications the estimated cost of setting up the proposed new television station, whether it will have a "must carry" status with existing cable companies and the new MMDS; and whether the station will pay for this facility.

The proposed new television station will be established by private enterprise. Until applications are invited and proposals received for the franchise, I am not in a position to give any estimate of the costs that will be involved for the successful applicant.

The station will have a "must carry" status on cable and MMDS systems and at this stage I do not visualise that the station operator will be required to pay for the facility.

Will the fact that the station operator will not have to pay for these facilities conflict with commercial fairness to the bodies distributing the MMDS signal? Further, can the Minister confirm whether the expansion of the MMDS system that he envisages will mean that fees will have to be paid to the BBC which were not heretofore paid? Will he, in effect, become a collector of money from consumers on behalf of the BBC?

As far as the non-payment of royalties to the BBC and ITV networks by the cable companies at the moment is concerned, my understanding is that negotiations have been proceeding for some time about payment of royalties in advance of any proposal for MMDS. MMDS is merely a wireless type of cable system. The introduction or otherwise of MMDS is not relevant as far as the royalties question is concerned. With regard to unfair advantage, RTE, for example, do not pay to be carried on the cable companies and this is the same type of system. MMDS is the same, except that it is wireless as distinct from cable. There is no unfair advantage whatsoever. As a matter of fact, a number of the satellite channels that are now being carried are carried free. One or two of the other channels that were asking to be paid royalties were asking the cable companies to pay them to carry the system, rather than the other way around. They have now been knocked off by the cable companies — CNN, for example.

On the first point of non-payment of royalties, can the Minister confirm the truth of reports that the MMDS is a different system in that it involves rebroadcasting and will, therefore, bring to a head the question of payment of royalties in the way that head end systems that pick the programmes out of the air would not? Would he not, therefore, agree that this will result in the likelihood of payment of royalties having to be made?

I do not want in any way to damage the negotiating position of the cable operators in relation to the dealings with the BBC and independent channels in the UK. It is a fact that the negotiations are proceeding and, as I understand it, nearing completion in relation to the years that they have been operating without paying royalties. I do not want to say anything in the House——

It is a system change.

It is not a variable.