Mr. Michael Keatinge:

I reiterate that the money about which we have talked was from the old fund. There will be an opportunity under the new fund from the back end of 2014 to 2015. The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund is making its way through the Council and the Parliament and the decision on it will, presumably, be made in the next few months. Ireland will then make decisions on how to splits its budget and how much will be allocated to Axis 1, 2, 3 and 4.

That is a decision for others and the Minister. I do not necessarily believe there is the same conflict of interest with the FLAGs. We certainly received an instruction from the Commission that the FLAGs had to have an identity and were not simply to be a sub-committee of an existing structure. It was not to be a case of letting the local development company deal with coastal issues once a month. They had to have a stand-alone identity.

I stress that once a local community is meeting at this level, if, as we have done, it attracts funding from Údarás, the Leader programme, BIM and Fáilte Ireland, no project should go undone simply because of paperwork. If it is more appropriate for a project to be included in the Leader programme, this is from where it should be funded. If it is more appropriate to fund it through Enterprise Ireland or Údarás, that is from where it should be funded. FLAGs have a maritime identity and should not see themselves as limited in any way by the European Fisheries Fund. They should see all of the other funds as part and parcel of what they are about.

With regard to whether another entity or group such as the Leader programme would be a better administrator than BIM, coming from BIM I argue that we have a tradition of administering for many years. We are trying to achieve a balance between providing an administrative service which is centred solely on ensuring governance and ensuring local communities make decisions. It is a matter of opinion as to whether any one body would be better at administering than another. I do not think we are any less efficient and do not believe any money is lost. As I stressed in my introduction, we do not take money for the services we provide. We do not have overheads and do not charge for my time or that of coastal staff. The cost is borne by the taxpayer through the general fund. I do not want to say we are better than the Leader programme orvice versa. That is not what it is about. It is about creating structures which seamlessly provide a port of call for somebody in a coastal community to interface directly with all of these funds. I hope somebody coming to a FLAG meeting will be equally able to speak to the Leader programme representative, or the representative from BIM, Údarás or Fáilte Ireland. That is our aim.

I hope this explains what we are trying to achieve. I do not believe it duplicates administration.