The Minister for Social Welfare, Ms Coughlan, will speak to the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, about the awarding this week of a local radio franchise to Ocean FM.
Speaking on a North West Radio (NWR) news programme yesterday, Ms Coughlan acknowledged that her constituents would be hugely disappointed by the decision.
NWR has held the franchise, which serves north Sligo, Leitrim and south Donegal, for the past 14 years. Ocean FM Radio caused controversy earlier this year when it dubbed NWR listeners in its submission as "old, lacking aspiration, conservative, retired, unemployed and coming from a lower social class" .
Former Irish goalkeeper Packie Bonner and Sunday World crime journalist Paul Williams are believed to be among the shareholders of Ocean FM, the majority of whom are prominent business people in the region.
Labour Party alderman, Mr Declan Bree, Sligo Corporation, criticised the revocation of NWR's licence and questioned the competence of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.
"The fact that the commission could not convene because it did not reach a quorum last Monday and only had the essential quorum at Tuesday's meeting, when the decision to revoke the licence was made, clearly questions the competence of the present commission's decision-making powers," he said.
"People throughout the region are baffled and at a loss to understand how a professional, successful and long-serving broadcaster can be treated in such a fashion."
Mr Bree questioned how a station which had consistently maintained excellent listenership figures in all national surveys could be treated in such a way.
Mr Paul Claffey, managing director of NWR said: "The decision simply defies logic since the BCI is bound to take a station's performance figures into account. Our phone lines have been jammed all week by distraught listeners and we've no answers to give them."
NWR's 15 staff say they are upset. "There have been absolutely no guarantees that any of the staff from the existing station will be re-employed by the new licence holder," a spokeswoman, Ms Margaret Carr-Flynn, said.
Ocean FM will not take up the franchise until September 2004.