Ms Eileen Mannion:

There is a lot of red tape. Things take an awfully long time to be delivered. I do not know if that is across everything but it really is an issue. You hear of funding being announced for a project but it is several years later before it actually comes to fruition. This needs to be addressed. My colleague spoke about Thrive, the RDF and LEADER. LEADER is a huge concern where I am from because it helps small local projects - not the big €5 million or €10 million projects but small local projects. It helps to ensure that small businesses can get funding to improve what they have and to employ one or two people locally and support local projects. It is small money but it is really important and it is of huge concern that this budget is going to be cut. I agree with the point about CAP and all those forms of funding. We have to make sure there are no cuts to those. Small family farms are really important for our regions so we are looking to this committee and to our MEPs to ensure that these issues are highlighted and that we do not lose funding. The big concern involves the multi-annual financial framework whereby they are looking to bring all the funding in together. That will destroy the assemblies and our regional areas. It needs to be kept separate.