Mr. Noel Curran:

The difference there is twofold. When it comes to 2FM losing money, the commercial radio sector was much more critical of 2FM when it was earning money. Over the past ten years, 2FM in total has contributed €10 million which has been invested in public service programming elsewhere. It has had a difficult few years and we want to see it turn around. One must look at 2FM within that context. I am all for people with a profit motive and people making money in the commercial sector and they can make money. When a commercial radio station is sold, shareholders benefit. The Chairman mentioned Today FM. Today FM was sold as part of a €200 million deal. I am sure those figures would not apply today but if commercial revenue increases, they are still valuable properties. We saw that in the sale in 2012. One cannot have one's cake and eat it. One cannot just say that we will have some of that public funding but will not have all those disclosures or release the top presenters' fees and if we sell and make millions, we will not pay back to the State whatever moneys we got but just distribute them among our shareholders. That is the weakness in the argument. Again, I sound very negative about commercial and I am not negative. I think commercial radio does a fantastic job. I think community radio, which is absolutely not for profit, does a terrific job as well. However, this is not a straightforward argument but a nuanced and complicated one. If someone can come forward with a plan which says that companies like Communicorp, which is one of the biggest radio operators in the UK, and UTV, which earns €20 million per year pre-tax, should get public funding without any kind of requirement or onus on them as to how that money is being spent efficiently, it is a difficult argument to make.