Mr. Robert Nicholson:

I thank the Chair. Deputy Ó Laoghaire mentioned earlier the governance structures in our local decision-making capacity. On a national level in terms of rural policy, we are fully trying to make sure that that place-based approach rings true. As part of the OECD review that we referred to earlier, its representatives will be here on mission visits over the six to nine months and we have specifically asked in the terms of reference that they do some analysis of our governance structures in terms of the national down to regional assemblies and the regional assemblies down to the local. They will assess how at a local level, vertically but also horizontally, PPNs, LCDCs and LECPs link in with regional assemblies, local authorities and all of those things together.

We would, of course, have heard there are pockets in all of these areas that perform really well and there are weaker areas elsewhere. We will ask it to look at this and it will give us a root-and-branch analysis of it. Some of this has to do with skill sets, resilience in communities or leadership. There are certainly plenty of lessons we can learn on how to tidy up some of the structures we have in place. Some of them are still quite new and the dynamics are still forming. We see this as a big piece of work on Our Rural Future in giving a spit and polish to how our governance structures have operated to date and trying to remove some of the rough edges.

I want to bring to the attention of the committee that last year the OECD published a review of regional attractiveness it had conducted with the Department of housing. This pointed fairly strongly towards some of the issues that have been highlighted about local authority capacity to make decisions and provide flexibility and revenue raising capacity. This speaks to some of the points that have been made about some restrictions that apply at present with regard to access to finance. This will absolutely be a key part of our work over the next 12 to 16 months.