To ask the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, pursuant to AQW 44498/11-15, to outline the nature of the European Commission observation letter on the draft programme; and whether the Commission signed off the programme in this correspondence.

A draft service level agreement to cover the local strategy drafts and also the animation stage of the process has been issued to the Council Chief Executives Forum for comments. The Local Rural Development Strategy template will issue to the new Local Action Group’s (LAG’s) before the summer. Once these have been completed Department officials will assess them and the successful LAG’s will be issued with a contract, providing the Programme is approved by the Commission and the business case is agreed. Human Resource plans are the responsibility of the Administration units in the Councils and their respective LAG’s.