Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá brón orm that I could not be here at the beginning of the presentation, but I received Mr. McGuinness's correspondence. I thank him very much for his courage and his honesty. As all the other speakers have said, it takes a very brave, big person to do what he has done and to take the ultimate decision, because of principles, to step aside from the job he was appointed to do. I say well done to him. It is great to be able to have this frank and honest discussion about how we prioritise rural Ireland.

I have some questions based on Mr. McGuinness's experience and having seen what he has seen. We are inundated with groups that repeat what Mr. McGuinness has presented here today around the stringent and laborious, rules preventing them from accessing the millions of euro in funding that is supposed to be there for groups in Leader programme funding. The groups and the people who are behind the applications - including volunteers in many cases - are willing to take on these types of projects, they have the creativity, capacity, ability and a definite need for the projects they put forward to Leader. In Mr. McGuinness's experience, does he believe anything could be wrong in their applications or is there something that they are not doing right in regard to the Leader programme funding being so inaccessible to them or is it just down to bureaucracy? We could be told that the applications are not good enough, or that the people behind the applications are not expert enough, or do not have the experience to carry these projects through. In Mr. McGuinness's experience is it the case that the people, the will, the enthusiasm and the creativity are on the ground to do it and they are just not being let do it?