Mr. Fintan O'Brien:

I thank the Deputy. This is one of the key recommendations within Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021-2025. We have been doing quite a bit of work on it recently. One of the challenges is that when we look at this internationally, it is very hard to find a system that has worked really well in terms of rural proofing. We are conscious that we do not want to repeat mistakes that have happened elsewhere and that it becomes very much a box-ticking exercise. We want rural proofing to add value to policymaking where rural issues are integrated into that process as seamlessly as possible.

The international evidence very much says we do it on a phased basis and undertake a pilot. That is why we are taking that approach. We have been talking to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media regarding its sustainable tourism policy. We have been talking to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with regard to the national planning framework. We are plugging into the interdepartmental group, which our Department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Enterprise Ireland are on, regarding the hub strategy. We have also been talking with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The idea is to feed into that process of, for example, a sustainable tourism policy at the development stage and ask whether we are taking in rural opportunities and challenges and making sure that is part of the policy to make it stronger. Over the course of the year, as we go through it with the other Departments, it is about identifying what the outcome of that will be. Do we need information packs? Do we need training with Departments? Do we need tender forms to fill out? It is to try to make sure there is actual value added rather than, as I said, face value box-ticking. That is the process we are in at the moment.