Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today's meeting is focused on the education and training board, ETB, sector. People may recall that earlier this year the Committee of Public Accounts engaged with the third level sector and produced a report which focused on seven third level institutions. Financial accounts were examined by the committee, as was the voted expenditure and the appropriation account from the Department of Education and Skills, as well as the financial accounts of the Higher Education Authority. The committee held five public meetings to consider the matter. In recent weeks the University of Limerick report, authored by Dr. Richard Thorn, has been released. Many of the serious issues discussed by Dr. Thorn were raised and discussed at this committee in our engagement with him before he was requested to carry out that work by the Department.

Our concerns in relation to the education sector in general are rooted in issues raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the publishing of accounts and statements by education bodies. A fundamental difficulty is the fact that in this sector the accounts of many bodies are not published until two or three years after they are due. Some ETBs continue to go back every year to the Department or SOLAS for an allocation of funding, and the Department and SOLAS continue to fund them without having seen the audited financial statements of the prior years. That is a major concern for this committee.

Our focus on the education sector, as the Comptroller and Auditor General will also comment, is because a report was produced on the timeliness of reporting in the entire public sector, which includes the 300 bodies that he audits, and the education sector came out bottom of the class. It is surprising that so many of the organisations referred to for late production of financial statements were in the education sector. In simple English, we ask that the Department of Education and skills practises what it teaches when it comes to financial matters.

The production of annual accounts in a timely fashion is a requirement, and is important in the interests of public accountability that they be published and available for discussion in a forum like this. This committee has signalled that it will not tolerate a continuation of this situation next year. This applies not just to the education sector, but right across the public sector. We will ensure that all organisations meet their requirements, statutory or otherwise, and have their fullaccounts presented within three months of the year end with the objective of having them certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General within six months. All public bodies should send their accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General by 31 March 2018. That is five months away. They are now on notice and have five months to get it right. There is no good reason that this cannot be done by the end of March of the coming year.

Today we will focus on the ETB sector. We also have representatives from the Department of Education and Skills and SOLAS, which are the funders and as such have oversight responsibilities. Our first session will be with the Department and SOLAS, followed by two further sessions with Dublin City ETB and Kilkenny ETB , and then Tipperary and Kildare-Wicklow ETBs. The representatives of those organisations are in the Gallery today. They are free to come and go. However, because what is being discussed here affects a range of ETBs, we hope it will be a learning process for everybody involved in the sector. We will look at the good points and the pitfalls we have encountered.

To begin, our first session will deal with SOLAS and the Department of Education and Skills, and the Comptroller and Auditor General will make an opening statement regarding his report. I welcome the representatives of the Department of Education and Skills to this session, including the Secretary General, Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú, Mr. Hubert Loftus, Ms Ann Fitzpatrick, Mr. Eamonn Cusack and Mr. Phil O’Flaherty. From SOLAS, we have Mr. Paul O’Toole, chief executive, who is accompanied by Mr. Connor Dunne and Mr. Ciarán Conlon.

I remind members, witnesses and those in the Gallery that all mobile phones must be switched off. It is important that phones are put into flight mode because just putting them on silent will not prevent them from interfering with the recording system in the Oireachtas.

I wish to advise the witnesses that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

Members of the Committee on Public Accounts are reminded of the provisions of the Oireachtas Standing Orders that the committee shall refrain from inquiring into the merits of a policy or policies of the Government or a Minister of the Government or the merits of the objectives of such policies.

I ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to make an opening statement about the Department and SOLAS.