Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

We could probably narrow it down to two main areas in terms of systems issues and personnel and staffing issues. In terms of systems issues, with the bringing of former VECs together with different systems, there was a good deal of recoding manual work to be done at individual ETB level and the bringing in of the training function brought in another management system that had to be integrated to enable them to complete their first set of accounts. There was quite a significant amount of networking, improved IT systems and the strengthening of those, which was a key challenge. That remains a challenge but good progress has been made in terms of stabilising systems and improving them to a point whereby the shared service model that is coming down the tracks will be the real modern solution to those.

The other area was personnel challenges. The ETBs, like many other areas throughout the public service, were affected by the Government's moratorium on recruitment and some individual ETBs were hit harder than others in terms of how that moratorium impacted. It would have affected a loss of expertise in particular areas. That was a difficult challenge to manage in a small ETB office. With respect to what we have done for the sector, we have strengthened the senior management team with the appointment of directors. That is a big support to the chief executives. Additionally, we have put processes in place to fill critical vacancies. In the period since 2015, 2016 and to date in 2017, we have enabled ETBs to fill about 100 critical vacancies spread across the ETBs - these are critical areas within their head office - to enable them to meet their obligations. In fairness to the sector, it is not for the want of trying. A lot of good work happens in the ETB sector. We are seeing the benefits that have come from the senior management teams that were put in place in 2016 and the critical vacancies were filled in terms of the improvements in timelines in getting accounts done. We would think there would be significant improvement again in 2017 in working towards achieving those timelines.