Mr. Barry O'Brien:

I was present at both meetings we had with the chairpersons of section 38 agencies. A couple of very important points were made. Many of those in the disability sector and at the lower level of funding made the point that the level of assurance being required would be new to many board members. It was pointed out that all of these people are doing this on a voluntary basis and meet maybe six times per year. They felt it was unreasonable of us to request a reply before Christmas. We set a deadline of 31 January 2014 while some agencies sought for it to be much later in the year. Some of the chairpersons felt it would require two board meetings to give an absolute position, one to introduce the document and discuss it in detail and one to give it some consideration and make a formal decision. We will seek full compliance by 31 January 2014.