Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is good. Heading into the last year of the allocations in the last programme, is there any mechanism in the IT system to handle or manage decommitments because the local action groups need to know about them and what will happen to them? Is there any mechanism in the IT system so that it becomes available to them for other commitments they have within their programme?

The contracts for the staff within the local action groups or the local action groups themselves end in 2020.

What arrangements has the Minister made for 2021? What arrangements has the Department made? Does the Minister know what shape the future programme will take? Under other programmes, funding is needed to draw up a plan for the next programme. Will it be front-loaded again for the next programme so that these companies can get prepared?

There is a reason I am asking all of this. Obviously, we do not want to lose the staff in the LEADER programmes. They need some degree of certainty on how the Department will operate the transition from one programme to the next.

I have a similar question on rural regeneration.