Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

On the walks scheme, the target was to have 80 in place and we are a little bit behind that. My expectation is that all of those walks will be on stream by the end of the year. That will represent a doubling of the number of walks under the scheme. The reaction on the ground is very positive. It is now open to additional expressions of interest for new walks that want to come into the scheme, and I believe there is considerable demand for it. We have increased the number of rural recreation officers across the country to try and support the development of those walks and the development of outdoor recreation opportunities generally. This fits in with the new outdoor recreation policy that was published by the Department in the second half of last year. From a tourism and well-being perspective for local communities, there are huge opportunities there. That is reflected in the outdoor recreation policy that was published, and the value that we are getting from the walks scheme is significant. I always go back to the point that these are walks that are provided on private land with the goodwill of farmers, and this is engaging farmers in maintaining those walks for people who use them. It is a win-win for everybody, and something which we and the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, are keen to build on.

On My Open Library, there is a lot of work going on in that space to try to expand the numbers there. The numbers that are actually delivering the service relative to the supports that have been provided is less than we might have anticipated, but the expectation is that it is going to grow over the next couple of years. There is a new libraries capital programme that has opened up as well to provide additional investment in the development of libraries.

On the Deputy's last point about the town and village renewal scheme, the RRDF and policy coherence, the development of the town centre first policy has, in fact, really been of benefit for both of those investment programmes. Even within the Department we have restructured how we do things a little bit. We have brought the town and village renewal and RRDF schemes together with the town centre first policy. What we are really trying to do under those schemes is very much aligned with what is happening under town centre first. There has been a huge amount of investment under both of those schemes in the last number of years. What the town centre first policy is trying to do is bring a bit more structure to planning at a local level, so that all of the community is bought into whatever investment is going into the towns. We moved away from the more low-hanging fruit types of projects that have been around for years, and now there is a bit more of a focus on town teams and town centre first officers trying to identify the best opportunities within these towns to be supported under these schemes. We see that the town centre first policy has really been an opportunity for the delivery of both of those investment programmes.