Ms Mary Hurley:

Local development companies are hugely important partners for us. They deliver our LEADER programme, SICAP, the CSP and so on. The funding we provide to them is linked to the programme and to targets. There has been a huge increase in the moneys provided to local development companies over the years. Where additional asks have come in around things like Ukraine or Covid, we have met those. We meet with local development companies regularly and engage with the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN. Where funding issues arise we address them on an ongoing basis. In terms of Our Rural Future-----