Mr. Declan Gibbons:

I will try to address that issue. Youghal Community Radio is one of the stations affected. We received notice of the cut in February. We applied to recontract last year and should have received notice in this regard by the end of the year, but we did not. We were then notified in early February that our funding would end on 30 June, despite the fact that we had applied for funding for a new three year contract up to end 2016. Thanks to the work of CRAOL, we have received assurance that funding has been extended to the end of this year to facilitate a coming together of CRAOL representatives, Pobal and Pobal's paymasters, the Department of Social Protection. There has been a positive meeting between these three groups. There is an awful lot of good will, notwithstanding that the proposed cut in funding is cathartic for many stations. There is huge uncertainty in this regard for the five full-time and other jobs at my station. We have agreed to enter into negotiations with Pobal on the metrics in terms of what we should deliver and how that will be measured and to ensure there is a common understanding by the Department of Social Protection and Pobal. There is evidence that up until now there was an information and understanding gap between Pobal and the Department which we think fed into the rejection of some of the stations.

We are positive about how the process is advancing. Having said that, there are five stations with the guillotine hanging over them.