Ms Helen Doherty:

It is similar for Leitrim Development Company in some ways. Our five regional officers are the people on the ground who work extremely closely with farmers. They visit the farms on numerous occasions, etc. We take all of our farmers through a very extensive training programme. They learn about the framework for practice, and all the processes, procedures and policies that we have in place to safely deliver social farming. Once farmers have completed training we start to work with them on their farms. We provide mentoring on their farms and visit the farms several times. Before anybody is placed on a farm we have to be happy. Effectively, we have a training programme and an accreditation system for our farmers.