Mr. John Purcell:

To make it clear, I represent the owners of the radio stations. I am part-owner of the radio station where I work. We are not looking for handouts. The sound and vision scheme and the scheme for Covid constitute a model of how it can be done. We submit a list of programme proposals and say that this is the programming we will provide so we will be able to cover council meetings, etc., this is the time it will take and this is the budget we allocating to it. We submit that budget, that budget is approved and we then submit a cost report at the end so it is verified. If public money is to be given to support public interest journalism on independent radio, we accept there needs to be transparency and this has been there through the sound and vision special Covid scheme and sound and vision scheme in general so we do not have an issue with that.

There is a lot of appreciation of the role of the media across all its spheres. How do we continue? I am meeting the Minister next Monday. I do not want to come back in a year and a half and say things are the same. As Mr. Dooley noted, there is an urgency to this and we need to make sure this is not just a flash in the pan where we come in here, say where we are at and just go off and disappear. This needs to be the start of a process. We look forward to engaging with the Minister. We are thankful for the opportunity here today but I think this needs to be part of a process. I hope this answers the Senator's question.