Mr. Nicholas Crossan:

I thank Deputy Farrell for his questions. In the last few years, there has been comprehensive training with the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, and the CARO, and also an accredited partnership with University College Cork. I will let Mr. Moylan take that up shortly.

Before I move to that, the Chairman asked whether the AILG would get involved with the local authority regarding, for example, Salthill. The AILG is a representative body of all 949 members plus all 31 local authorities. While we must respect the democratic standards that the councillors have in that field, from time to time we have councillors, groups and political parties coming along for advice and guidance on that. If that happens, the AILG steps in and we offer our services to them to the best of our ability, and there are issues which we can deal with internally or else contact whatever Department it might be for advice. However, we would respect the democratic right of each local authority.

I hope that answers the question. I will hand over to our director, Mr. Moylan, on the question of training.