Record Audience Figures for Prime Time Investigates

Over half a million people watched last night's Prime Time Investigates on the tyre-recycling business. This was the highest audience so far for a programme in the summer run of the award-winning, in-depth investigative series.

The programme had a share of 41% and an average audience of 585,300 and, at its peak, was being watched by 653,700 people.

Prime Time Investigates: Tyres - A Dirty Business exposed the dirty world of tyre recycling with reporter Paul Maguire going undercover to confront the rogue dealers who are making vast amounts of money while flouting the law and destroying the landscape.

Next Monday, 24th May, at 9.30pm on RTÉ One, in Prime Time Investigates - Forgotten Lives, reporter Barry O'Kelly examines the daily struggle facing people with Alzheimer's, documenting their stories of hope, pain and despair. Over 44,000 people in Ireland suffer from this incurable illness and the programme explores the impact it has on them and their families and why many feel let down by the State.

And on Monday, 31st May, the final programme in the current series, Prime Time Investigates: Crimes Against Children - Evil Online, traces the online criminals who share images of child rape and abuse. Hundreds of thousands of child abuse images are created and circulated across the world and Edel McAllister reveals the alarming number of Irish people who take part in this evil practice and shows how widespread the downloading and sharing of child pornography is in this country. It also exposes the predators online who seek out children and pre-teens hoping to seduce them into sex.