John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Secretary General, Mr. Owens and their officials to this meeting. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report lists nine main issues: ineligible students paid to participate in Youthreach; leases entered into without the requisite ministerial sanction; significant sums spent on legal fees; numerous complaints from teachers and others to the Committee of Public Accounts; the money lost by the VEC on a boat; how the VEC did not follow guidelines on granting early retirement; teachers being paid when they were not timetabled; staff payments not being subject to PAYE or PRSI; and the VEC's need to make a large tax settlement. This is a major indictment of bad management.

Since Mr. Owens took over the running of part of what was County Cork VEC following its amalgamation with the City of Cork VEC, one of many that occurred across the country, what he has found and what the Comptroller and Auditor General has reported to us is not what one would expect of a VEC. How many schools operate in County Cork? Will Mr. Owens comment on the anomalies that he has found in the VEC? Were they found in any other facility?