Mr. Rónán Ó Domhnaill:

Funding is essential to the development of the independent commercial radio sector. We are very aware of that. We have a very good relationship with the IBI, which represents the industry. Various schemes are in operation with the commission to help support commercial radio and community radio. We have our Sound and Vision scheme, which provides funding for programming.

In the Deputy's area, South East Radio would have got roughly €50,000 over the past few years for programming. In addition, in the budget, a commercial radio fund of roughly €3 million was announced. We are working actively with the Department and the radio sector to get a scheme up and running by the end of the year end that the sector can avail of. We also have a digital transformation scheme coming on stream and a news reporting scheme. I hope that all of these together will help the industry.