Ms Mary Hurley:

I will ask my colleague, Mr. O'Brien, to come in as he has been working on the rural proofing piece. By way of background, we have been working hard on this issue both within the country and also internationally. We had an OECD conference in County Cavan earlier this year and rural proofing was a key issue. In order for rural delivery to work, proofing has to be right. We did a lot of work on that.

The other piece is that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was in the UK for St. Patrick's Day where she met her opposite number in respect of rural development. The UK has done some significant work on rural proofing so we had some discussion around that. We are very conscious of the need to bring this matter to a conclusion. This pilot work that Mr. O'Brien and the team have been doing has been critical around that. I will let him reply to the Deputy briefly regarding the work he has been doing.

Ms Mary Hurley: I will ask my colleague, Mr. O'Brien