Mr. Damien McCallion:

To add to one or two of those points, 14 of the 24 staff who are working on that programme are people who have lived mental health experience. They are working alongside health professionals. There are six hubs. They are also connected into other initiatives that are running outside of the Border area. Earlier, I mentioned the Kilkenny model, which we visited us as part of that. The operation is called the Kilkenny model and for the recovery college in Kilkenny, the same principles apply on how that is working through. It had to adapt because clearly people could not come into those hubs. As Mr. Forbes said, technology was used to try in some way to maintain a connection with people, challenging though it was. It needed that sort of balance.

As part of the new PEACE PLUS programme, taking the learning from that, we hope to advance more work in mental health. Post Covid-19, we have all seen the impact that Covid-19 has had on people, young and old. We are trying to shape projects that might help us to move out of the experience of Covid-19, hopefully in the years to come, as part of one of our project’s initiatives. We are also building on what is there. What is important from our perspective, as I mentioned earlier, is not to start a project without having some sense of it. The EU funding is time bound. This means that at the end of the programme, well in advance of completion, we must be sure that it delivers value in evaluation and, if it does, that we are well engaged with policymakers and the various processes within our jurisdictions. This is to make sure that we can have funding so that we can at least continue running in the areas where we have it. Ideally, then, we can expand it out to other areas as well.