A Limerick group is lobbying the cable television company Chorus to carry a Catholic television station on its network.
The group, which includes the parish priest of Adare, Father Frank Moriarty, handed in 3,400 signatures to Chorus this week, requesting that the EWTN (Eternal World TV Network) station be included in the company's digital line-up.
The network's five television stations are offered free of charge to cable operators.
Chorus, which has 250,000 subscribers, operates in most parts of the State outside of Dublin, Galway and Waterford.
The EWTN is the largest religious cable network in the US, and is watched, the company states, in 68 million homes in more than 40 countries through English, Spanish and German.
The Independent Connacht-Ulster MEP, Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon, formerly worked as a chat show host for the network whose TV station is beamed into Britain and the Republic on the Hotbird 4 satellite. In August, Skydigital commenced broadcasting EWTN radio.
Mr John Phelan, secretary of the EWTN for Ireland Group, said that of the four Irish TV channels, only RT╔ 1 provided religious programmes.
"We have a high proportion of elderly people and a lot of those are living alone or they are housebound and cannot get to Mass.
"They would benefit from it very much."
Father Moriarty said the channel would offer people a choice of programming and give a deeper insight into the Catholic faith.
"It is only a choice, a spot on the dial," he said.
Mr Willie Fagan, public affairs director of Chorus, said there were a number of "must-carry" channels on both the analogue and digital line-up.
"The remainder are determined by existing contractual arrangements with existing providers and research carried out by Chorus on the demand from its subscribers. "