Ms Teresa Hanratty:

I will come back to what the Senator said about media literacy and what the sector is doing in that space as well. Regarding equality and diversity, Learning Waves is the training body for the independent radio sector. The sector had the foresight to set up its own training body 18 years ago, funded by the sector and part-funded by Skillnet Ireland. The caveat to that is that it is not continual funding and we are subject to applications year on year. In 2021, we commissioned a study with the Irish Centre for Diversity which looked at the area of inclusive leadership across the sector. A number of recommendations came from that, including setting up a steering group for equality and diversity across the industry and putting in place training programmes for equality and diversity leads across the sector, which we have done. We have established that steering group and the terms of reference have been agreed. We have just launched an inclusive equality and diversity survey across the whole sector, looking at getting the perspectives of the employees around equality and diversity in the sector, along with that looking at putting supports in place to help the industry work with minority groups. Mr. Byrne mentioned this from the community sector perspective but we are also looking at getting more diverse voices on air, which can sometimes be a difficulty for the sector, through no fault of its own. We are looking at putting in place structures and programs to encourage more diversity on air as well as employment across the sector.

Regarding digital and media literacy, Learning Waves represents the sector on the Media Literacy Ireland steering group, which is an initiative set up by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland that looks at creating awareness of media, how the media is created and how it does what it does on a daily basis. To that end, we have implemented a number of programs, one of which is a transition year media week where we work with transition year students across the country. Radio stations engage with us to provide a training programme for transition year students who come into the radio stations. They are exposed to what happens on a day-to-day basis within the radio station but the unique part of that is that they get the opportunity to produce content that is then broadcast on that radio station during that week. It really gives them an insight into what radio is doing, how it is produced but also gives them the opportunity to have their voices heard on radio and to tell stories that matter to them. These 15 and 16-year-olds coming into a radio station and being given that opportunity to have their voices heard on air is really important. We get a lot of interest in that programme.

The final programme I want to mention is the journalism graduate programme, which the industry had the foresight to establish back in 2019, in order to attract new talent and new journalists into the industry. We partnered with Skillnet Ireland, the industry and the BAI to bring in the journalism graduate programme, which is a placement for five months for journalism graduates. Some have come from DCU over the years and have been successful in securing full-time work following the five-month placement. Funding was again secured this year for ten graduates to work across ten different radio stations. Like all the programs we have mentioned, it is subject to funding and will only continue as the industry sees fit in terms of being able to secure that funding amid the drop in commercial revenue. That is just an overview of what the industry is doing, and wants to continue doing, in those areas of equality and diversity and digital and media literacy.