Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I recall senior people in the European Commission referring to the Irish model as a template for community participation. That is one of the strongest points for me. I must declare an interest in that I was elected as a community director to the Inishowen partnership in Donegal in 1996. From the get go, the model involved directly elected people from the community and a bottom-up approach. The model across Ireland is something we have been very proud of and it was held up as a template but it is now being destroyed using the very people who held it up as a template. It is the words of the witnesses, who are on the front line, that the work they have done could potentially be destroyed. That is very alarming.

We will ask the Department and the European Commission to respond but we will send on a transcript of the discussion. They can look at it, respond to the points and when they come before us we can have an engaging session.