Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

I will come back on the surplus question, if that is okay. I want to make the point that the surplus that arose in 2020 was very much a one-off in the context of the impact of Covid on a range of activities across the Department's Vote. We sought to reuse funding to the best extend possible through putting a range of additional Covid supports in place to sustain in particular the early years sector where the viability and survival of providers would have been at risk if we were not in a position to do that as a result of the fall-off in service demand. All that was a one-off. I would not expect to see surpluses of that scale materialise in subsequent years. It would not be an option to divert what was a one-off saving in a particular year into a base-level adjustment. Something like changing rates of payment for foster carers would be a permanent change of your cost base. It obviously has to be negotiated and agreed through the normal budgetary cycle.

On youth services, we have a lot of interaction with the education and training boards which oversee the delivery of youth services funding on behalf of the Department. I am sorry, I have lost my train of thought on the Deputy's precise question. It related to the evaluation arrangements are in place around outcomes and so on?