Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentation and their continued engagement with the committee. Jackie’s last point was on country music and people in Dublin saying it would not happen and it would be mad, but both Deputy Munster and I know "The Greenscene" on LMFM is one of the most listened-to shows in radio in our area, so we get what the witnesses are saying.

The witnesses spoke about a national music strategy. We cannot have a scenario of compellability because the stations are commercial entities trying to survive. We had the independent radio stations in before the committee talking about that very issue, the balance between youth content and playlists and all of that. The witnesses spoke of a non-binding strategy where stations would be rewarded. Have they fleshed out how that would work? Are there examples, without a national strategy in place, of where it is working well and stations are exceeding what the witnesses would like to see happen?