Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

A significant part of what the Department does is deal with the LEADER programme, which has an investment of €250 million over its duration. It is divided into three themes, one of them being rural environment which covers energy and water conservation. Our job is to support the groups delivering that programme. It is a bottom-up approach with community-led local development. The Deputy is right to say that as part of that work we need to identify the good projects and try to ensure that best practice is shared around the country. Part of our role is in hosting workshops where the different groups can come together and share their ideas. We had a workshop on the rural environment earlier this year where a range of different ideas was shared and different best practice examples were demonstrated. One example is a group in Wexford that has developed an advisory guide. It is a very handy easy-to-use guide for community groups and small businesses that are delivering investments under LEADER. It covers areas such as insulation, power generation and lighting in a very simple manner that others can use in designing applications and projects under LEADER. It ensures that the sort of investment happening under LEADER is proofed for climate change and environmental measures.

Beyond that there is a network that shares different best practice ideas. There is a very specific interactive map dealing with environmental projects on our website. It shows where case studies of good practice in climate change projects are delivering. That is a good avenue for the local action groups delivering the programme and for the community groups to see how projects can be delivered in other areas and how that might apply to their areas. There is quite a lot of work in trying to share all that knowledge and experience.