Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)

I thank the witnesses for being here. They play an important role. There is one councillor from my county here, Mr. Robert Power. I know he was former chair and has done much work in the area. That is not taking away, of course, from the present cathaoirleach, Mr. David Healy. The witnesses are all very welcome. This is getting to be a weekly occurrence with Ms Coughlan. She is always welcome here, as are Mr. McGuinness and Mr. Frain. I thank the witnesses for their contributions and presentations. There are some underlying themes.

I have a few questions to tease out. Last week, we heard from Ms Coughlan and the president of the Committee of the Regions about the importance of having European liaison officers who work closely with local authorities to look at funding opportunities. That is something that we on the committee agreed with. I say that without wishing to pre-empt the recommendations that we make. I would like to get the witnesses' views on that.

On funding opportunities, obviously the regional assemblies are trying to make sure that Ireland maximises its allocation under the current funding, but we have negotiations on new funding opportunities coming up post 2027. How are the regional assemblies preparing for that and looking for the challenges and opportunities? What priorities do they see emerging regarding that? The witnesses might say a word or two on the progress that is made through the assemblies working with local authorities and community groups to try to access EU funding, because it is not an easy task.

The final question is about just transition funding. Mr. Healy spoke about that. It is a concern, as I know Mr. Power will agree, in Kildare, where one of the municipal districts has been left out and cannot access EU transition funding even though, in the past, it would have had the highest level of people working with Bord na Móna. I am talking about the Rathangan area, particularly in the Kildare municipal district that Mr. Power represents. I brought this issue up last week too. I am interested in a response on that.