Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

We have learned a great deal from much of the analysis and the dialogue we had with the VEC. I refer to the issues that emerged in the public domain, the discussions of the Committee of Public Accounts on this matter and in recent years on other issues that arose in former vocational education committees and the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Arising from that, we have put in place a range of departmental regulations to cover areas such as procurement, tax compliance, borrowing and reporting. This ensures we issue regulations to the sector.

Furthermore and very importantly, a revised code of practice has been drawn up for the sector. The code has a number of different aspects, including a framework for codes of conduct for board and staff members, financial controls in terms of risk management, new arrangements for the internal audit function which differ significantly from previous arrangements, arrangements for audit and finance committees and general oversight and reporting requirements. We had a detailed engagement with the sector as a whole on developing this.

In terms of the specific issue of Youthreach, we updated our guidelines, having regard to what we have learned, and we have ensured that all vocational education committees, now known as education and training boards, are aware of the requirements in place for Youthreach programmes.