Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My only observation is that with Tusla being a new agency only three and a half years old, I would have hoped that we would start afresh with a new organisation and not bring in some of the bad habits - I do not want to call them that, but let us call them what they are - from other Departments. It is lamentable when a new agency, such as Tusla, is bringing €5.2 million of bad habits into the organisation. I understand any audit will highlight issues of people maybe bending the rules for expediency purposes; that happens everywhere. Having said that, this is taxpayers' money and Mr. McBride has a responsibility to ensure those rules are followed.

I ask Mr. McBride to outline the nature of the three-year plan. How is Tusla getting those agencies and suppliers on board in terms of service level agreements? It was highlighted, for instance, that some of the SLAs were not signed until the third quarter of the year in which they were in operation. That is clearly not acceptable. That might not necessarily be suppliers; it might be other service providers through the Tusla family. I want to ensure that the compliance department in Tusla is doing its job appropriately.

I highlight one other small thing. Clearly there is an issue if €700,000 is not identified by Tusla's own internal audit or accountancy function and has to be highlighted to it by the Comptroller and Auditor General. I ask Mr. McBride to give me some information on that.