Mr. Declan Gibbons:

To achieve a figure like that here would require an adequate percentage being levied on the broadcast charge and earmarked as grant-in-aid for community media development. The fund could possibly be disbursed through the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland or the proposed local community development committees. However, the distribution method is an administrative issue. The important thing for us is to establish the beneficial community and public service nature of community radio and to agree that operational funding through the public service broadcasting charge would be good value for money. However it is distributed, the grant-in-aid fund should be clearly identified as a fund to support both existing community stations and to encourage the emergence of new community media where they do not exist currently.