Mr. John Purcell:

Yes, obstacles. The overall economic situation makes the staffing of radio stations difficult. Radio stations may employ somebody who is a fluent Irish speaker and who has a particular passion for Irish. In my own station, the morning talk show presenter for five or six years was Eimear Ní Bhraonáin who is a fluent Gaeilgeoir. She happily engaged as Gaeilge during the primetime programme where it was appropriate. However, she left the radio station and being fluent in Irish was not the chief determinant for the replacement. Therefore, there is a crisis in recruiting qualified staff and in staffing English-language news and current affairs, let alone providing Irish-language programming output. I believe the observations around levels of Irish programming provided must be placed in the bigger context of difficulties that we have in maintaining viability.