Sir, - I note that the IRTC has received 21 applications for licences. Rather than allowing paternalism to continue in Irish broadcasting, why not issue 21 licences? Better still, auction a five- or three- year licence to the public to use discrete segments of the radio spectrum.
Perhaps, then, Ireland will have truly "independent" radio, and genuine creative talent would be given a forum to develop. The present system merely encourages sycophantic adherence to the subjective cultural directives of the IRTC. - Yours, etc.,
Fintan Clancy, Hampstead, London