Mr. Declan Gibbons:

I thank the Chairman and the other members of the joint committee for inviting us. This is an important opportunity. My colleague, Ms Sally Galiana, is co-ordinator of Near FM in north-east Dublin She is also president of Amarc-Europe which effectively is the organisation for community radio stations across Europe. From that point of view, she brings a great deal of knowledge with her.

I am the station manager at Community Radio, Youghal, in east Cork and we cover part of west Waterford as well. What we hope to achieve today is to make the committee more aware about what community radio is all about and also to explain why we think it could and should be supported.