asked the Minister for Communications whether he has received any submissions in response to his recently published leaflets on MMDS; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I have not received any such submissions.

Will the Minister say if he will be giving people a reasonable opportunity to make submissions before he proceeds to bring regulations before the House?

I will be signing the regulations on the MMDS tomorrow.

Will the Minister agree that giving people a little over a week to provide a detailed response to the discussion document is hardly fair to those who have misgivings about the operation of MMDS?

We have received a certain amount of correspondence in the Department regarding MMDS since its introduction was announced. Some letters sought information while others supported the illegal UHF broadcasters. The publication of the MMDS booklet has not made any change in the type of letter received by the Department. It was not identified as a document to elicit response; it was an information document. I thought it was so well laid out that it answered any possible question that might have arisen.

For those — and there are many — who feel that the issues of the commercial viability of this system, as well as other aspects, have not been answered in sufficient detail, will there be a period during which these issues can be discussed more fully before the regulations come into force?

I notice that the commercial viability aspect was answered very fully by the remaining applicant for the television service to the Independent Radio and Television Commission under the legislation that was brought forward last year. As I said, we have been discussing this matter for a number of months. The Deputy expressed his concern on a number of occasions in this House at the slowness of the decision making in relation to the signing of the order. I can assure him that it will now be signed and put on the table of the House tomorrow.

The Minister waited six months before giving us this assessment. Now he is giving us the results in ten days——

Please, Deputies. If Deputies are offering they ought to rise in their places and be called by the Chair in the normal way.