Ms Joan Carthy:

My understanding is that it does not matter where people work or who they are, they must apply for a personal assistant. It would not come along automatically just because someone had been elected as a county councillor. I think that is a major barrier, from the beginning to the end, for people to surmount when thinking about getting involved in politics. It is difficult to even try to sort out this level of support to enable people to negotiate the different stages getting involved in politics. It is a huge barrier. Even if the person that Deputy Tully is asking about were to be elected as a county councillor, he would still need to apply for a personal assistant.