RTE'S director of music, Niall Doyle, sounds exhausted but buoyed up from his trek around the country for the public consultation session which will inform the new music policy RTE will announce in the autumn, writes Michael Dervan. He describes the process not only as "astonishingly positive and constructive" but also as "humbling, because it makes you realise how important what you do is in a very deep way to an awful lot of people".

The major themes of discussion have included education, touring and access to the RTE performing groups (people outside of Dublin want more performances as well as "enriching activity" around those performances), and a host of matters, from contemporary music to a plea for Victorian parlour ballads. He was pleasantly surprised, he says, by the constructive tone of the sessions and glad that the orchestra's two conductors, Alexander Anissimov and Gerhard Markson, "are widely seen as good news".

Individual submissions are being accepted until April 30th, and a detailed form (people need only fill out what they feel is relevant to them, says Doyle) is available from RTE on 01-208 2617.