Ms Tara McCarthy:

With regard to the fisheries local action groups, FLAGs, we did come in very much at the tail end of it the last time. We were on a fast learning curve with them because it had to be done quickly with quite limited funding. We were conscious that when this round of FLAGs came, we were not going to make any of the same mistakes that others had made or we might make again. We did a comprehensive review of what happened in that last 18 months to ensure this round of FLAGs would be a productive one.

Within the review, we found that, although it had only €1.5 million of funding attached, it was amazingly efficient in getting small jobs done in local communities. This had an impact on a small job here or creating a full-time job or a part-time job there or making families stay in a locality. Some fantastic individual stories came out of our FLAGs programme. The EU has insisted the ethos of FLAGs must be from the bottom up. It cannot be the State dictating to local communities what they should or should not be doing. This is local communities managing their local areas, coming up with a strategy and deciding what areas should be funded.

Last week, the funding available to each of those FLAGs was announced by the Minister. The designated FLAGs have been established and are now working towards the creation of a strategy to ensure they can implement those funds. We are hugely confident of how much they can do when one increases the budget that significantly. The fact they have been run by local individuals means that we will co-ordinate, help and take the learnings from putting in key measurable impacts. This will ensure we are tracking what is being done, what will and will not work, what will create longevity and be true to the strategy they are developing. When we see what was done with just €1.5 million, we believe a significant amount can be done with €12 million.