Mr. Justin Larkin:

Our relationship with LEOs and local development companies has been mentioned. We do talk to the LEOs and identify local arrangements about who has the first call in particular types of project. That happens to varying degrees around the country. Under the new programme, it is proposed to have a national protocol to provide an overarching structure within which local agreements can be developed, but we are not sure where it is. Steps are taken to ensure there is as little duplication as possible at local level and that people know where to go in the case of certain types of project. The Leader programme is often referred to as a funder of last resort, but we cannot replicate other national funding streams. Because of this we are very often kept to one side. Unless we can identify some bespoke intervention that is not being funded under another major national programme, we are constrained. The interventions of Leader and local development companies must be integrated with other State interventions.