The Government wants Ireland to be at the forefront of the development of digital terrestrial television, according to the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, who said that was her priority.

She told the Dail that neither she nor the Government had changed their basic policy on the introduction of digital television. However, she had "been forced to consider changes to the structure for developing this digital platform, following concerns expressed by the RTE Authority in regard to the manner of the sale of the transmission network.

Ms de Valera was speaking on a private members' motion introduced by the Fine Gael spokesman on arts and heritage, Mr Enda Kenny, who condemned the Minister for her handling of the Broadcasting Bill which deals with digital television and called for it to be withdrawn.

He also deplored "the total uncertainty she has created among the media and communications sectors, with particular reference to management and workers at RTE and TG4 who were not informed of any intention on her part to alter the proposed and accepted format of transmission management and control".

Mr Kenny criticised her omission of digital radio from the legislation and what he termed "her consistent avoidance of the issue of authorising the indexation of licence fees approved by the previous government" and non-action on a licence-fee increase.

Ms de Valera said she found it hard to take Fine Gael's "new-found interest" in digital television, when the party did not put one proposal forward on the issue during its tenure in government. She stressed that RTE had itself said it had to reduce its workforce by more than 300 and "this has nothing to do with the establishment of the digital platform under any scenario".

She emphasised that no part of RTE's television service was being privatised. There were no plans to sell off the RTE transmission at a "knockdown price" as reported in some newspapers.

Ms de Valera criticised The Irish Times for reporting that she had engaged Mr Philip Flynn to resolve differences with RTE or to promote a common understanding between RTE and her Department. She said his task was to facilitate a common understanding among RTE, the RTE Trade Union Group and the RTE network employees on the Government's policy objective and the difficulties that had arisen.