Mr. Jim Jennings:

There is a cost involved and they believe that the FM platform is superior. They believe that FM coverage is so good in Ireland that they do not need to be on DAB. We would like to have them on board. We have made representations to the Department on this, to see whether the Department would be able to encourage them to get on board. It would be great if we had independent radio and RTE on the same platform, on DAB. We are currently in discussions with IBI about an all-Ireland radio player, which has led to an agreement between ourselves and the IBI on this matter. That is a positive move from our point of view, so our next step would be to try to encourage them onto DAB. If they were on DAB, the service would be rolled out to the whole country.