Dr. Cilian Roden:

I have an observation for the committee. In the west of Ireland there are two schemes that have tackled these problems. There is Dr. Brendan Dunford's great work in the Burrenbeo, and an organisation I am involved in myself, the Lough Carra Catchment Association, which brought in a LIFE grant of about €5 million. In both cases, you are dealing with a local group that tries to recruit members locally and acts as the ginger group, for want of a better word. In the Lough Carra LIFE project, we have involvement with Mayo County Council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Coillte but the driving force, if you wish and if that is the right phrase, is the Lough Carra Catchment Association. It holds meetings every two months. We have a membership of 200 or 300 people, including a county councillor, anglers, farmers and scientists. You need a group on the ground that actually cares about the place. I fully accept it is a total maze with respect to where the money comes from, but certainly in the LCCA we do not think that is our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is getting the work done, but if you know what you want to do and you have a clear plan, then the other things have a tendency to fall into place. That said, obviously we need better State focus.