Mr. Keith Johnson:

Although our primary role is to collect and distribute royalties, we do have a long-standing policy of fostering and developing new music creation throughout the country. We sponsor a large number of festivals throughout the country, and not just festivals but music education programmes and song contests. Sligo Live is a festival we have sponsored for a number of years, principally the new and emerging artists stages at the festival. We also sponsor Sligo jazz festival, and have done so for a number of years. We have also sponsored the Other Voices festival in Dingle, the Christy Hennessy song contest in Tralee, which will take place at the end of the month; and Song School, which is the national programme where IMRO members go into schools to teach children about the craft of song writing and the need to respect copyright. BEO is another schools programme which was initiated in Donegal and has spread throughout the country as well. We provide support for a large number of song contests and festival, principally the smaller ones. Typically, the funding we provide is a small amount of money. Not only do we provide financial support, we also provide promotional support. We use our network of communications channels to help provide promotional support for the various different events taking place around the country. That is beyond the financial contribution we provide as well.