Ms Cynthia Deane:

On behalf of my team I thank the committee for the invitation to attend. As chief executive, I take very seriously my role as the accountable person under the ETB legislation, and I acknowledge the committee’s role in ensuring that public services are run efficiently and achieve value for money. I am pleased to have an opportunity to make a brief opening statement to the committee and I will give a quick summary of three main points, namely, our ETB services, developments since 2013 and our approach to preparing financial statements.

I will start with very brief information about Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board, KCETB. Our ETB caters for the needs of 25,000 learners in 14 schools and colleges and 30 further education and training centres across the counties of Carlow and Kilkenny. We reach into towns, villages and rural communities from Hacketstown on the Carlow and Wicklow border to Ferrybank in south Kilkenny on the outskirts of Waterford city. We have approximately 1,200 staff on our payroll and our annual budget is in the region of €53 million.

I will now discuss the main developments in KCETB since it was formed in 2013 following the amalgamation of Kilkenny and Carlow VECs. After the amalgamation of the two county VECs in July 2013, KCETB had three main aims. We wanted to maintain continuity of services, uphold good standards of governance and minimise the risk of failure in critical areas of administration. These aims were all achieved, thanks to the commitment of all staff and especially our administration team leaders, who made it possible for the ETB to maintain high standards of service and minimise disruption to our learners and staff.

One of the ways we maintained continuity of services involved reorganising and rationalising the work of the Carlow and Kilkenny office so that our ETB head office functions are carried out between the two locations. Since 2013 we have integrated and improved administration systems across the two offices. We have implemented a new code of governance, we have harmonised policies and procedures across the ETB, we have merged computer systems and installed a shared ICT network operating between the two centres, and we have integrated the training services from March 2016.

During the transition period our services not only continued uninterrupted, we also prepared for significant growth and reform. Since 2013 enrolment in our schools has grown and we have undertaken a number of building projects to extend our capacity and refurbish our facilities to meet demand. We had, for example, a major extension in the Abbey Community College in Ferrybank and we are about to open a new campus in Carlow, which will house 2,000 learners in state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities.

I shall now turn to the preparation of annual accounts. We give priority to the preparation of annual accounts by the relevant deadline. This has been achieved in recent years because of a number of critical factors. We have robust and efficient systems for regular checking of income and expenditure throughout the year. All our school principals, senior managers and administrative staff co-operate fully to routinely carry out this. We invest considerable staff resources in the preparation of the annual accounts in the first quarter of the year. We also make effective use of our ICT system to support the annual accounts process.

I hope I have managed to give the committee an overview of our operation in the Kilkenny-Carlow Education and Training Board, and a sense of how we try to make a positive difference for the people in our two counties. Out of a total population of 156,000 people in the two counties the KCETB has 25,000 participants in our education and training services. This is one in six people of all ages, or one quarter of the people who are aged 12 to 65, in the two counties. In other words, an average of one person in every household in Kilkenny and Carlow is accessing our services. The average cost is €776 per head per annum. In everything we do we try to achieve a balance between competing demands and priorities. As public service managers we try to do things right and we try to be efficient. As educators we try to do the right things and be effective for our learners. As the chief executive, it is my goal to ensure that KCETB is doing the right things right. I thank the committee for its attention.