Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

First, we recognise that this is a very important issue. The first issue relates to the amalgamation of the VECs into the ETBs and the big change of which that was part. They were effectively new State bodies which were amalgamated State bodies from the ETB. That was the first issue.

On the second issue, concerning amalgamation, where we were amalgamating two and sometimes three former VECs into ETBs - both of the ones that were talked about here were actually three VECs coming together - they would have had different financial systems and so on. We had reduced staffing as a result of the amalgamation so we have been working through, with the Comptroller and Auditor General, the form and manner of the accounts. We have been working through the updating of the systems and we are putting in place a shared financial services system, which is under way in planning, as well as a shared payroll system. We are working that through.

For the ETBs that were particularly challenged, we have prioritised additional resources. They are seeking to address this. The particular one that has not completed the initial set of accounts has had to do a manual check through all its work. It is working through that manual check at the moment. It hopes to complete that in the next short while - we are talking weeks here - and it will move immediately to a manual check of the payments for the following year. It is an 18-month account followed by a 12-month account. The ETB is very conscious of the need to do that. To be fair to that ETB, the VECs that make up that ETB actually had been fairly efficient in returning their accounts previously so it is not that they comprised an inefficient organisation coming in; it is just the mixing of the new organisation having regard to the staffing. Particularly in Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim, there was a long-term sick-leave issue in the leadership of the accounts. There were a number of different factors that gave rise to the issue. That is not to say that the ETB is complacent about it. We are certainly working very closely with it and, indeed, the Comptroller and Auditor General's office.