Mr. Denis Leamy:

I thank Deputy Canney. I accept his last point. We need to be better at illustrating the impact of all these ranges of work and the value given to the people involved as well. They need to see and hear about it from others.

I refer to the rural social scheme and the issue of insurance. I have heard about it from a wide number of people as well. We have a firm role in providing a help desk, a payroll service and training in the social rural scheme. We are guided by the rules set by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. However, I undertake to ensure we raise it and try to get it addressed. This issue has been raised with us in Pobal. I know it is coming more and more to the fore in terms of groups taking responsibility for insurance.

In respect of the documentation that groups receive, the rural social scheme was mentioned but we could apply it to many schemes and programmes we are involved in. We are tied again by the regulatory and legislative frameworks. We cannot do some of these things for the groups. Mr. Murphy gave an example of the senior alerts where we can take on some of that and take away some of the burden. However, there are some things, especially relating to health and safety or other items that the groups themselves have to own. What we need to look at there, and we have done it at times, is providing more comprehensive training and support to groups. That is something we will be trying to address over the next three years as well. I refer to Pobal being out there much more, involved in regional seminars, working with groups on particular themes and looking at templates that are there.

We cannot work through those templates with people but at least we can hopefully provide them with the materials. We do that on many programmes. Doing more of that is where we need to concentrate and take away some of that burden from groups. How we deliver value for money is my first question everyday. The value of the work going on on the ground across the country is critical. We are a management and administrative framework to that. It is incumbent upon us to be as lean as possible in how we provide that service. We measure the administration costs of the overall programme costs. Those are declining.

We also look at better ways of doing our work. Technology has been extremely important to us over the last number of years. I refer to online portals and online engagement with groups. That throws up issues as well, especially in areas where broadband is not particularly strong or people do not have the resources to engage. However, we have two sets of support available. Most are online but paper versions are also available to the groups that cannot engage with that. We ensure we are getting as much efficiency as possible through applying technology to the changes and we are continuing to do that. There is much more technology that can make us lean into the future.

Most of our resources and staff are actually out on the ground. The community and early years side of things involves meeting groups and involvement through regional supports. They are one-to-one supports through the groups. To lessen the burden on the groups is part of the critical infrastructure. I will come to Mr. Murphy in respect of the outputs.