Mr. Ciaran Murray:

The Future of Media Commission has a lot about community media and the kind of funding that could be supported there. To see a community media fund set up, one way we feel it could be future-proofed and sustainable is to link it to a percentage of the television licence fee, which would be the community media fund. It is not wildly unrealistic. We are very aware in community media that you also have to operate a social enterprise model. We also understand that we get funding through European moneys and European projects. As Ms Bowell said, with one foot in the community and voluntary sector and the community education sector, we are also able to draw on funds from Pobal and places like that, which other places do not. It is also grounded in reality. I thank our colleagues in Virgin Media Television for the support they have given us and to the BAI over the years also. Gabhaim mo bhuíochas le TG4 as an jab iontach a dhéanann sé chomh maith.

I mentioned earlier that Community Television Association can look at models that are not commercially viable and still make sure they can be funded. We ran a series with the sadly now defunct Comhluadar about people raising their children through Irish outside Gaeltacht areas, as far afield as Cabra and Longford. There is a place and there is other material. It is fairly standard stuff. You see it across European countries, as Mr Craig knows well. I was the president of Community Media Forum Europe. If you look at, for example, what they have done in Austria with a similar legislative framework to us, you will see they have done a lot. You will see that community television in Vienna, Okto Community TV, is number eight on the channels. Even in Belfast, NVTV is number seven when you flick through the channel listings. There is a space and this can be done. We tend to look to the UK for historic, cultural and linguistic reasons but we need to look beyond that at what has been done in countries with similar populations such as, for example, the Austrian and Danish models. In Norway there is community television for the whole country; the country has a broad landscape and does not have the population density of other places. There are models out there we can look to which can show a really viable and vibrant community television sector.