Ms Maeve Foreman:

I will address the Senator's first question. There are many good examples around Dublin city and around Ireland of different models. Cherry Orchard is a community garden managed by the local partnership company and it has employed a horticulturist, Peadar Lynch, who used to be chair of Dublin Community Growers. He runs an excellent garden and he is available there with his expertise. That community garden has a market. The growers sell local produce they grow in the local area. That is one model. There is another community garden in Finglas that has a full-time employee who is a horticulturist and has some Tús workers working with him and in that way people are learning horticultural skills. There are both elements there. Some people have their own allotments, there is a community garden element and a paid worker. In my own case in Mud Island we are all volunteers and we have learned as we have gone on. We brought in expertise. We got a compost master to come in and show us about composting. In the case of another garden near us, the north east inner city community garden which is called Farmers Hill, once that community garden had a certain number of people, the education and training board provided a horticulturist to go into it once a week and work with the people over a whole growing season and they learned a great deal from her. That is something education and training boards will provide. Dee Sewell, who was involved in setting up Community Gardens Ireland is another full-time horticulturist working in the Carlow area and she is employed by the local authority to work with and support local growing projects to get off the ground, some in schools and some attached to NGOs. There are loads of models. An area I want to visit, which I have just heard about, is Cloontuskert, County Roscommon, which is an old Bord na Móna village. The local Tidy Towns committee led in developing a community orchard and garden and growing projects in schools. There are some lovely models around Ireland, each with their own personality. We should probably compile an overview of the different models.