Mr. Sean Larkin:

As rural social scheme supervisors, we are major stakeholders in the implementation of the scheme. We are a cog but we are being left outside. There was a forum between the Irish Local Development Network, the Department and the rural social scheme national committee. In 2017, that failed dramatically because the Department would not engage with us. We had meetings set up but we were left outside the circle. The Department does not want us inside that circle. If anything is to come out of today's meeting, we would like to be inside the circle and put in our tuppence to the review. It would make for a very good review if we could be inside. We are the soldiers on the ground and we know the way it works. We implement the work. If anything is to come from today's discussion, I would like to see multiparty talks, including SIPTU, starting immediately again on the review.