Mr. Declan Gibbons:

The Deputy raised the issue of the scale, growth and the limits. It is reasonable to be concerned about that. As individuals or as representatives of CRAOL, it is not for us to put a limit on the growth of the sector, but perhaps I could quantify what has happened so far.

The first concept and framework for community licences was rolled out by the BAI in 1995. There were six of them; 19 years later there were 24 stations fully licensed. As Deputy Moynihan mentioned, there has unfortunately been some attrition in the past 18 months to two years and two of those stations are no longer in existence. That has much to do with operational funding. However, there have been 22 stations in existence over that 19 year period. If we assume that the rate of licensing is going to double over the next ten years, one would imagine there will be no more than just over 40 stations or so. That is assuming that everything improves.