Ms Roisin Duffy:

When Women on Air set up the training programme, it was a practical approach. We have trained from all sections of society. Dr. Sindy Joyce is one of our graduates. Right across the board, from people in business to people in direct provision, voluntary groupings, politicians such as new people coming into these Houses, we show them how to navigate the media landscape. The training programme is kind of special because it is made up of media professionals. For example, we have mentors.

Mentors can be former editors of programmes in a number of organisations, such as Virgin, formerly TV3, and RTÉ. They can be people with a media background who have produced programmes over years, who understand how it works. For each person who is trained, they are given a mentor for six months. The idea is not that that person is called by the trainee to ask if they should wear nail polish on a particular day. It is a case of the person having something to say and finding out where that might be best placed, what is the best way of getting that information on air, what the programme might be and getting some suggestions. That is done after a weekend. Unfortunately, it has to be a weekend because we are a voluntary grouping. We beg and steal rooms and people. We have a great trainer in Ms Coyle. Over those three days, every single person goes through everything. They learn how to pitch what they want to say and that is turned that into a fearsome interview with Ms Coyle, who does the radio interview with people. That is critiqued as a group. The group basically almost empowers itself. It becomes a unit in its own right. Then it moves on to television, with a proper cameraman, who comes in, responds to all their concerns and does the interview. That is critiqued again. All the while, we are trying to give people the tools to do the job. Then we give them a mentor to help them along that route. It is all voluntary. That is how it works.

We have a small amount of money from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, that helps us with some of it. We are very happy to have the support of the BAI in that. That is what we do. What we need is for more women to say that they need our training because they have something to say and they need some help with that. We do the best we can. Obviously, our resources are limited. Again, it comes down getting the data and doing the research across the board. That is taken out of our hands. We cannot afford to do it. We do not have the money or the expertise. The committee does. That information will engender change. I have no doubt of that.