Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

County Cork Vocational Education Committee had annual expenditure of around €100 million and was responsible for a range of educational and training facilities. As the committee will be aware, County Cork VEC was dissolved with effect from 1 July 2013 and its functions transferred to Cork Education and Training Board. This committee received a large volume of correspondence over an extended period setting out a range of complaints and allegations about the operations of County Cork VEC, some with reference to incidents dating back to 2000. These included allegations about the operation of the Youthreach programme in Macroom and a range of legal disputes between the VEC and its employees. The audit of the financial statements of County Cork VEC for the 2011 and 2012 years of account were extended to examine the various alleged control weaknesses and financial losses. The focus of the additional work was primarily on establishing whether any of the alleged control weaknesses were evident in the operation of County Cork VEC in 2011 and 2012 and, if so, whether the VEC had suffered financial losses as a result.

Youthreach is a national programme of second-chance education and training directed primarily at unemployed early school leavers aged 15 to 20. County Cork VEC operated seven Youthreach centres. One of the centres, Macroom Youthreach, had an approved allocation for 30 students. While the Department of Education and Skills had specified eligibility criteria for Youthreach applicants, local co-ordinators had discretion to allow individuals who did not satisfy the normal criteria to participate in the programme. In such cases, the applicants’ files should clearly document the reason for their inclusion on the programme.

Between 2007 and 2012, payments totalling €114,000 were made to eight students participating in Macroom Youthreach who were subsequently deemed by the VEC to have been ineligible. Examination of the files of the eight students found a lack of documentary evidence for the reasons for their inclusion on the programme.