Mr. Phil O'Flaherty:

From a departmental point of view, SOLAS provides a good level of reporting to the Department at the three points in the year at which it engages with the ETBs around expenditure in the further education and training area. SOLAS engages with the ETBs which forecast their funding requirements at various points of the year. However, given the fact that €538 million is going from SOLAS to the ETBs, sometimes expenditure and liabilities that the ETBs predict do not materialise close to the end of the year. The Department fully agrees that both moneys from Votes and from the national training fund which are provided for particular purposes at a particular level should be expended to the fullest and to the greatest extent possible.