Mr. John Purcell:

I listened with interest to the points made. I think we have much of what the Senator is looking for in radio already. Some 79% of people listen to radio every week. It is a trusted medium. As Dr. Wheatley said, it is free at the point of consumption and it is archived since we are required under our licences to archive what we do. We are already regulated. The model exists but our funding model is broken.

Senator Warfield asked whether we had chosen to be under the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland umbrella. We are tightly regulated. That interchange shows the difference since other media have a choice and are not regulated at all. The elephant in the room is the social media giants, which are not regulated. Next year, they will be regulated to an extent but that will be paid for by the Exchequer. We are feeling particularly sore about that and would like something to be done. A point was made about what the Future of Media Commission has missed. I do not think it is a miss but we are anxious about the various funding schemes that are described as being non-platform neutral. We fear they will go in the same direction as the sound and vision scheme and that one of the most popular and trusted forms of media, radio, will end up not receiving its fair share. We believe it would be appropriate, in these funding schemes, to ring-fence for various sectors, with a specific amount for radio, local papers, and for national newspapers and other broadcasters. We feel that lack of clarity may end up with a case of trying to please everybody but pleasing nobody.