Mr. Michael O'Keeffe:

I will take the final two questions relating to the sound and vision fund and DCTV and then hand over to our chairman. I was in Manorhamilton the day "Francisco" was launched with Donal O'Kelly and it was fantastic. It is a great achievement to have won an international award. We are trying to encourage stations through the fund to do more of that material. Ocean FM has been a great supporter of the fund, as have many other local stations. We are trying to encourage them to use it to increase the level of other programmes. There is no question that they would not get to make programmes such as that if they did not have access to the fund and that is why it was established. We are currently reviewing the scheme. I met IBI representatives at their AGM last week and I encouraged them to participate in the review. We are having a workshop in Croke Park on 2 December, which will discuss the next iteration of the scheme. It is approved up to the end of next year and we will have a new scheme in place after that. We are exploring how the commercial sector can utilise the scheme more and get more from it. Many stations are putting effective programmes together and Ocean FM is a good example in this regard. We want to see more of that and we will encourage the commercial radio sector to take a greater part.

Radio gets approximately 15% of the fund, which is linked to the cost of producing radio versus the cost of producing television. Of that, the commercial sector gets approximately 40%. There is potential for the sector to access more of this funding. The 7% limit is in statute. It was 5% and it was increased to 7%. This has provided opportunities for more programmes to be made. We are not involved in changing the statute. The view is that the level of the fee should not below where it currently stands but that is a matter for the Government to debate further.

I am concerned that DCTV representatives came to us a few weeks before they made the announcement that they were to cease broadcasting to request that we allow them to continue projects we had funded under the sound and vision fund. That would allow them to continue until February and we granted them permission to do so. One of the challenges in funding a company such as DCTV is its funding model appeared to be very much based on securing money from the sound and vision fund and from other schemes. There is a question mark over whether such a model is sustainable because the sound and vision fund is a competitive grant awards scheme and how one can base one's funding to such an extent on securing money from a scheme of that nature is challenging. They have bought time until February to continue with the service. Between now and then, we will explore with them whether there are ways to continue but they need to look at their funding model because one cannot rely on one scheme to be the mainstay of a funding model. There may be potential for that in the future because DCTV has done good work and has broadcast good programmes. We would regret it if they were not with us in the future.