Mainstream broadcasters in Ireland are often accused of providing a home only for those with cut-glass south Dublin accents or those with mid-Atlantic drawls.

As you walk around the Swords-based studios of Sunrise Radio with Irfan Malik this is clearly not an issue. The sounds of Hindi, Urdu, Polish and Chinese reverberate around the small building. Malik is used to this multilingual world - the station broadcasts in 11 different languages.

Malik, who has worked for many years in the UK and then the Republic, is typical of the kind of entrepreneur who hopes to build a sustainable business out of Ireland's increasingly diverse population.

His radio station, which holds a temporary broadcasting licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), has 40 staff, with 23 of them working as broadcasters. Most of the staff, Malik explains, are volunteers, but if the station gets a permanent licence this will change.

The project is at such an early stage that Malik is not even able to pay himself. Friends and more particularly family are helping out. "In Asian culture, families always back you up. If you are doing something good in Asia, in India or Pakistan, they alway support you, no matter what."

Malik himself has spent most of his career in the entertainment business, from restaurants to music venues. "I love to entertain, if they are my guests, if they are my friends, if they are business associates, my main concern is to entertain people. I love cooking, I love cooking for my friends or family."

He knows this passion to entertain can produce a business return, but he is cautious about over-promising.

Asked what kind of returns an ethnic radio station might produce in the years ahead, he is circumspect: "I can only tell you if you ask me in a few years, if I have a full licence."

Malik says working as a businessman in the Republic suits people from other cultures. The style is informal and getting face time with key people is not difficult to organise, he says. "Business meetings in Ireland are just like two friends talking. Its peaceful and friendly to do business here."

He claims a minority of people display racism from time to time by shouting abuse at foreign workers, but he is keen to play it down. "Tell me which country doesn't have anything like that . . . I never had a problem or anything like that," he says.

He says Dublin will probably resemble London within a few years in terms of its racial mix and he says this is a good thing for everyone. "It is good for business . . . More jobs are being created. I used to travel to Ireland 20 years ago and there were no jobs. Now you hardly see anyone who is unemployed. My radio station is in Swords and I believe it is one of the fastest growing towns in Europe."

Malik says despite a significant amount of publicity already, the vibrancy and scale of Ireland's changing ethnic profile cannot be overstated.

He gives just one example - the talk in recent months by the Republic's leading politicians about building links between Ireland's film industry and Bollywood. But Malik says things have moved beyond that - Bollywood is so yesterday.

"Well there used to be a Hollywood, then there was a Bollywood in Bombay. And then there was a Lollywood in Pakistan, now there is a Nollywood, which is Nigerian. They are having an event here in Ireland on April 21st, and we are fully supporting that," he says.

Malik's station may have fewer listeners than mainstream radio, but its audience is far more multicultural.

"Our potential audience is 300,000. This includes Polish, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Africans, Persians, you name it. We are broadcasting to them in 11 languages at the moment."

Although born in Pakistan, Malik has lived in London since the 1970s, but moved to Ireland a few years ago to start a restaurant business. In London he was involved in several different businesses. "I was involved in the entertainment business with the Asian community, Indian, Pakistani community. We used to arrange some live musical shows. Bands from India, live singers. It was all entertainment. Restaurants, Asian clubs. I used to own a few places in London."

While not a radio entrepreneur, Malik is clearly passionate about the medium. "From childhood I had a passion for radio as a listener. I love music so much. Radio has everything. It's infotainment literally - information, plus entertainment."

Malik first witnessed the profusion of ethnic radio stations in London and wondered over recent years why Ireland was not replicating these kind of services.

"The way the population was growing in Ireland, the number of ethnic communities, from India, Pakistan, Poland, you name it, the whole world is here in Ireland now. I was thinking there is nothing for these people to send a message across to their own community. There was nothing like that. So that's what made me go for a station here. This is the easiest way to send a message across to all the communities and bring them together," he says.

The service got a temporary licence last year for an Asian community service. It was extremely successful and this year a broader offering, encompassing a range of ethnic groups, is being attempted. It appears to be successful based on the number of phone calls to the station itself, he says.

Malik's previous venture, a restaurant in Co Louth, was not successful, but he says his dream has always been to run a major radio station. He is now the main shareholder in Sunrise Radio Dublin Limited which broadcasts on 94.9 FM throughout Dublin .

"We are getting a great response from every single ethnic group in Dublin. It's amazing, like every day we are called to a different meeting or function. Nearly every local authority in Ireland is doing something for the ethnic group in their area, and they are all calling us to meet them."

Unfortunately, for Sunrise the terms of a temporary licence preclude advertising, but sponsorship is permitted. Asked would he like a permanent licence, Malik is clearly ambitious for such an outcome.

"This is the ambition; this is the dream. But it depends on when and if the BCI advertises for an ethnic licence. When they do we will go forward, definitely go forward. We hope it will be soon as possible."

Malik describes his station as the first multi-ethnic radio station in Ireland. "We are the only one and we are the first one."

He also wants the station to reach out to Irish people. His message is very much an upbeat defence of multiculturalism, albeit from a commercial perspective.

"We have to mix and match," he says.