Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Officials from the Department are in regular communication with island representative groups, such as Comhdháil Oiléain na hÉireann, and it is intended that this practice will continue. Department representatives attended the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, council meeting, which was attended by Comhar na nOileán, on 2 September. Department representatives met with the chair and the CEO of Comhar na nOileán on 25 October. There has been engagement between my officials and the islanders. I am particularly conscious of the needs of islands. I outlined this earlier. There are specific requirements whereby, where islands are included in the grouping, they will have an important role to play. There is no island-specific local action group, LAG, but we are developing the islands strategy, as we discussed earlier. I am satisfied that the needs of the islands will be taken into account and will be delivered upon as part of this structure we are proposing.

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