Mr. Michael O'Keeffe:

I will answer those questions generally and will ask Mr Ciarán Kissane to respond to them more specifically.

First, on why there are so many rejections, I accept the rejection levels were higher. We had a lot of engagement with the sector on why applications were failing. That was a constant issue. We highlight that in our response in the document. It is a competitive process. One competes for the funding and, inevitably, what we have found in the past year is that a lot of qualifying applications for very good projects have been rejected because we simply do not have the funds. It is a very competitive process at this point. Independent producers and broadcasters are all putting in a lot of applications. The number of applications in the past 12 months has increased dramatically and there is no sign of it reducing in the current run. That is a factor. There is only so much money that we can give.

A second factor relates to the high level of radio applications, probably from the community sector, and we need to work with the sector a little more. We have been doing some work with it. It is a fact of life currently that there is a finite amount of money and that has reduced this year from last year. To give a concrete example, we received applications in the current round for projects worth up to €18 million but we have funding of only €4.5 million. There will be many disappointed people, many of whom have good projects that deserve funding but it is not available. That is a factor.