Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I simply wished to gain an understanding of the approximate timeframe involved, and that is fine. I thank Mr. Dunning for his responses.

I will now turn to Mr. O'Keeffe. During this morning's discussion, I have found it hugely instructive to examine the list of projects the broadcasting fund is involved in supporting, which appears in appendix 2. It really brings home the diversity of broadcasting in which the authority is involved, as well as the scale of the moneys allocated to people, which is both big and small. The largest grant was for €1.5 million, three were for amounts greater than €1 million and a large number were worth approximately €100,000, followed by a long tail of awards of between €10,000 and €12,000, which were for radio projects. However, there is a gigantic variety of different projects involved in all of this. I wish to focus on the observations the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General in chapter 20 regarding how that fund would operate, as well as some recommendations it made in that regard, and will turn to paragraph 20.19 of the report. I will not go through everything here, because in quite a few cases the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has accepted the findings fully. It stated it accepted the point and outlined what it was going to do about it. However, on the issue regarding delays in finalising contracts, the report makes the point that four of the 25 cases examined did not finalise their contracts within the 12-month period and for some, the finalisation point for the contracts ranged from 13 months to almost three years. What action has the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland taken as a result of this observation from the aforementioned office?