Ms Martina Mannion:

I might assist the Deputy. The ETBI is the body recognised in the legislation which has a role in supporting the sector. They are really a critical piece of infrastructure in the sector to support the 16 ETBs.

There are two other points the Deputy had raised that I might just assist on. The first relates to the roll-out of the training. There is training available on the new code through ETBI which will be in existence for the existing boards in the knowledge that the boards will be refreshed following the local elections later on this year and there will be further, more robust, training rolled out in the autumn in relation to board chairs, audit committees, executives. This is part of the lessons learned and the additional supports that we are making available.

The other issue which might assist the Deputy is on the internal audit unit. The Secretary General has already explained regarding the resourcing issue but, separately, since 2015, of 75 audit opinions from the internal audit unit, only nine indicated inadequacies in controls, and of those, many related to the ICT issues.