asked the Minister for Communications if he has any proposals to oversee standards of decency on the programming material available from satellite services being provided through Irish licensed cable networks.

The only effective way to deal with such matters is through international action aimed at ensuring that such material is not transmitted by satellite in the first instance. This has been recognised at European level and has resulted in the preparation of two international legal instruments — a Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television and an EC Directive on Broadcasting Activities — aimed at providing safeguards, inter alia, in the areas of concern to the Deputy. Both of these instruments are in the final stages of completion.