David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to comment on that. It is an interesting letter. It is follow-up correspondence from discussions we had with the education and training boards.

My comment relates to procurement. The last paragraph of the letter refers to having two people in procurement, one of whom is a temporary clerical officer, in an organisation of that size with a budget of approximately €95 million as being completely inadequate. Galway and Roscommon ETB has highlighted to the Department of Education and Skills the urgent need for a fit-for-purpose IT system and additional qualified staff for procurement to ensure compliance.

The issue of procurement is coming up a good deal and we are criticising Accounting Officers and organisations for a lack of adherence to rules. If it is the case that there is a shortage of staff and difficulty with information technology systems and so on then this is a problem. To be fair to this education and training board, those responsible have pointed it out to us and they have flagged that there is concern from their perspective. Can we write to the Department on the back of the letter, highlight the point and ask for an explanation with regard to the IT systems, the number of staff and the levels of support given to organisations like ETBs and so on?