Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for attending. The level of recruitment has decreased across the various programmes. What was the reason for the delay in recruitment?

In terms of the expenditure on some of the schemes, there seems to have been a low uptake. It was stated that the demand relating to the capital investment incentive scheme from food companies was low and that there has been a moderate drawdown of funds regarding the grant schemes for small food producers. Is the Minister in a position to account for this? One would have thought such schemes would be very attractive. There was also a lower than expected drawdown in respect of the seafood development schemes. Those are my two questions.