Mr. Gabriel O'Connell:

On the last programme we lost €2 million. We had a pipeline of projects worth €2 million ready to go. One can imagine the impact it had on our local action group and community. It is no surprise that we are up and running under the Leader programme at this stage. Expressions of interest are starting to come in and we will not find ourselves in that situation again. The danger is, however, that it can be a case of being first across the line. It is a five year programme which has to be delivered prudently. We would not want to be in situation, anywhere, where local development companies or local action groups were rushing to spend money to make sure they spent their quota. I do not believe that would be in anybody's interests.

Reference was made to the impact of JobPath. We definitely find that there is an impact on Tús. As a local development company that runs a local employment service, we also find that there is an impact on it. Not every local development company runs a local employment service. I believe there are 28 in total. The staff are paid by the State and it is a standard contract every year. We see no rationale for JobPath as a commercial supplier in a county in which labour market programmes are pretty well catered for. Our local enterprise office is struggling to find enough clients to whom to deliver its services, as are Tús and the rural social scheme. There is a real need for another look at the matter. I do not know how far the relevant Department is tied into contracts with JobPath, but stock needs to be taken to assess the real need in bringing external commercial suppliers into that space.

The current Leader programme was referred to. The process is complicated. Potentially, there are about six to eight points in the process at which a project could be held up or stopped. We made a number of applications and administration claims. I believe we are into the third month and none of the applications has yet cleared the Department. The process will have to gear up and improve by the time we reach project claims. We cannot have communities and entrepreneurs waiting six, eight or nine months. At a previous committee meeting one of our colleagues who had carried out an exercise showed that the wait could be eight months. We can certainly see how it could definitely be eight months and that will grind down the process. We note that before the programme started the European Commission commented that it wanted to shorten the supply chain for the delivery of projects. In fact, Ireland has managed to at least double the length of the supply chain.