I have only met Pat Rabbitte, former Labour Party Leader, once. First impressions last as they say. I found him to be rude and powerless, this was at the height of his career as Minister for Communications. I decided to rush down to Cork to go to RTÉ's 50th celebrations at UCC. It was made up of the usual heads and a few of the public. Actually having it in Cork meant that much of the Dublin media were absent, meaning a slightly better conversation about Broadcasting in Ireland.

When it won the rights to air the Rugby World Cup TV3 announced that it would launch TV3HD. As expect TV3HD will not launch on Saorview. TV3HD will be available only on pay TV platforms Sky and UPC. TV3HD will launch in August 2015 with the arrival of the RWC from England on the 18th of September 2015. This will mark the first time that TV3 have hosted a full interational event, previous it co-hosted the 2007 RWC with Setanta Sports.

No matter what the official view from the Oireachtas the public will pay for its service to broadcast on Saorview, the national free to air digital platform in Ireland. Saorview was launched in 2011 and since then OTV has remained off the service due to a dispute between the Houses of the Oireachtas and RTÉ's transmissions company, 2RN. 2RN is the company behind Ireland's broadcast infrastructure, it provides services for RTÉ, TV3, TG4 and Communicorp. It is expected that UTV Ireland will also be available on 2RN's Saorview platform. But the issue of cost has hampered much of Saorview’s development. 2RN sets the value of broadcasting a Standard Definition channel on the platform at €900,000 per year. The House of the Oireachtas are unwilling to pay this charge as they feel that 2RN is public body and should give them free passage on the public’s distribution network.

Oireachtas TV has lauched on pay platform Sky. In the dail the Minsiter for Communications, Alex White T.D., stated Sections 125 and 126 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 make the necessary provision to allow for the development of an Oireachtas TV channel to be known as the “Houses of the Oireachtas Channel” on the SAORVIEW TV network. The legislation provides that the channel should be established by the Commission of the Houses of the Oireachtas and that the oversight of the channel should be the responsibility of the Joint Administration Committee, which is a joint committee of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

UTV have announced Mary Curtis as the Head of UTV Ireland. She will be responsible for the overseeing of content and the development of the new service. UTV Ireland is expected to launch in January 2015. The signed a broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) in February 2014.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, T.D., is expected to announce a new broadcasting strategy, the news comes after the BAI's Report into the "Prospects for a Commercial DTT in Ireland?", which stated that the Digital Terrestrial Platform gave little diversity outside RTÉ channels. The new broadcasting strategy is to build on the current Broadcasting Act but will lead to new legislation in the future, which will incorporate the new Broadcasting charge as announced by the minister in 2013. It is expect that the Minister and his department are keen to push new services on to the DTT network, particularly the Oirechtas TV channel and the Irish Film Board Channel.