Ms Anna Quigley:

I would turn that issue right back onto the powers that be because this is a structural issue. As Mr. Connolly and Ms Kelly have said, the capacity to do the applications is there and they have a proposal ready to go. The structural decisions that have been made have reduced the role of the task forces and their independence in being able to allocate funding. When the task forces started, the way it worked was the task force developed an overall plan for its whole area, looking at all of the issues in an integrated approach, and that plan was submitted to the national committee. If it was approved, the budget was given to deliver the plan. That all went a long time ago. The HSE is now, in effect, in control of the budget and there is no ability at local level to be able to identify needs and say what should go where.

Crucially, it impacts on that issue of migrant communities and ethnic minority communities, because that is an issue we have done a lot of work on to identify their needs over the years. It is very clear that, again, that needs to happen at a local level. It is within the local communities that we can start that integration and involvement. The whole reason the task force structures were put in place was that there was a recognition that different communities have different priorities and that different responses are needed. Let us give us the communities the capacity to deliver. The task forces are still there, but their independence to make those decisions has been taken away from them. The question needs to be addressed from that perspective, as opposed to any issues that are with the people on the ground.