Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Any points I was going to make about the two previous ETBs were covered in their chief executives' opening statements.

The 2015 financial statements of Tipperary ETB will be examined today. Tipperary ETB is an amalgamation of the former vocational education committees, VECs, in Tipperary North and South Ridings. In 2015, the ETB had receipts of €42 million, matching payments of €42 million. Just under €31 million was received from the Department and €8 million from SOLAS. The audit opinion in respect of the financial statements was unqualified.

The Tipperary ETB financial statements for 2016 have been signed by the board and are being checked by my office. I expect to have the file presented to me for sign-off in the coming days, even possibly this evening.

The accounts of Kildare and Wicklow ETB are the first accounts of the ETB, relating to the 18 month period, July 2013 to December 2014. In that period, the ETB had receipts of just over €151 million, payments of almost €154 million and an overall deficit of €2.3 million. Just over €112 million was received from the Department and over €17 million was received from SOLAS.

Draft 2015 financial statements were received from the ETB on 12 December 2016 and the audit commenced in January 2017. Several issues arose during the audit, which resulted in a formal audit query being issued to the chief executive. Following receipt of his response, the audit team, at my direction, raised matters of concern with the chairperson of the board of the ETB and with the Department. Subsequent to their own further inquiries, the Minister for Education and Skills appointed a statutory investigator in October 2017. That investigation is ongoing. In the circumstances, I am not in a position currently to complete that audit. We will move to complete the process as soon as possible.