Ms Mairéad Ní Nuadháin:

I can answer that by repeating what I said earlier. RTE is very proud of this series and of all the series we have done to date with Peadar King. Not to take the limelight off Peader, but we have done other series. We collaborated with Irish Aid on a number of series a couple of years ago called "Far Away Up Close". There were different presenters for the series. To echo what Deputy Eric Byrne said, some of those series focused on some very positive stories out of Africa. It is not all war and turmoil. There are some very good business stories, for example, emanating from certain parts of Africa. We also did "What in the World?". We have done several programmes under the multicultural banner, such as "Welcome to my World". There was also the radio series that preceded this one by many years which was presented by Rodney Rice. It was transmitted by RTE but I think it was completely funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. There have been some great collaborations over the years. I pay tribute to the other agencies, charities and NGOs that co-fund this series with RTE and Irish Aid. It is a good collaboration.

Peadar has gone on record as saying that he has started the seventh series, so it appears we have commissioned it. In advance, I thank everybody who has promised money. Perhaps I should put the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the spot and also thank it. We would be happy to do another series. When we get figures for a television audience we can say that those people watched that programme. If one can reach 70,000 to 90,000 people with a programme such as this, it is a tremendous number of people to engage in that story and one can be sure they are watching it with interest. That is a great testament to the series.