Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

The position was initially established to try to encourage landowners to take part in the walks scheme. The Senator may not be familiar with the scheme but it pays farmers to maintain the section of walks that go through their land. The rural recreation officers were employed to deliver the scheme at a local level and to work with the farmers. The job involved bringing farmers on to the scheme, helping them to develop work plans as part of the scheme and ensuring that they received their payments every year. That was the officers' first port of call. In the counties where they have been added, there is capacity for new walks to be brought onto the scheme so they are now working with other landowners to identify new walks. It depends on the county, to a large extent. In some areas, they will have fewer walks than others. Rural recreation officers will have the capacity to get involved in other things related to rural recreation, so it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each local development company provides us with a work plan for the year that sets out what they are going to do. In those counties that have more walks and more farmers the officers will probably spend more of their time on the walk scheme than others that have fewer walks. It varies according to the area but the primary aim of the officers is to delivered the walk scheme at a local level by working with landowners to make sure that any issues they may have are addressed.