Dr. Dermot Coates:

As Ms O’Dea said, we will come back with more detail on that. It is important to bear in mind that at a central level, there is a central liaison unit within our Department that does outreach to the various LEOs. As we do regional events, the LEO network is of fundamental importance to us. For instance, last week, the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council partnered with Limerick Chamber and the University of Limerick to do a seminar on regional competitiveness for the mid-west. As part of that, representatives of the LEOs from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary county councils will have attended. We would not go ahead and do those type of events where we meet with businesses and discuss their concerns without having the LEOs there. They are also a key motivator to be able to ensure that businesses will attend and speak with policymakers. They are effectively the footprint on the ground and are increasingly implementing many of these schemes as the remit of the LEOs is expanded.