Mr. Damien McCallion:

On the evaluation, under the EU rules for the programmes very stringent evaluations are needed. Each of the projects will have a formal evaluation of what worked and what did not. One of the things we try to learn from is with innovation everything cannot work. Some things will work and some will not. It is important then to understand what you might do differently. To illustrate, because these are innovative projects and only running in small pockets - this links back to the earlier question - what we do is each jurisdiction, if you like, has the responsibility to see what it wants to bring forward. The programmes have a certain shelf-life. They are only funded for a certain number of years but in the last round of funding in the previous programme, over 80% of the projects were what we call mainstreamed. In other words, say there is a disability project in Donegal, that was then brought forward on a wider scale within a local area and then potentially, if it is very successful, nationally.

The Deputy may have seen I mentioned one of the projects on mental health, recovery college, where one uses people who have had lived experience of mental health to work with other people. That is innovation which is used in other parts of the country. I have seen a very good example of it in Kilkenny from another experience in another role. That has worked very well for us and is still going. The project is still running in both jurisdictions.

There is a very stringent evaluation process under the EU programmes and one of the key things the CAWT office, Mr. Forbes and the team, support us in as the partners to try to facilitate and broker that in terms of project management and things people may not have the capacity to do otherwise in the services, because as we know from the health services in both jurisdictions, the one common trend is that they are both under enormous pressure. Demand is very high. Having that support of people who can help those projects to go forward and still meet our obligations to the EU is crucial.