Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

We did not advance with the centralisation agenda alone. We would have very much been in partnership with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in trying to learn lessons from the approaches of which they had experience in terms of developing the plans. There was also piloting of two particular aspects of the processing - the initial online application and the regular monthly payment of students rather than every term. The difficulty and the challenge came because of the scale of the operation when everything came together, and that highlighted that it is hard to pilot the scale of everything coming together.

However, we have had successful examples within the Department. The other major topic we have discussed so far is the payroll system. We put in place centralised arrangements for the payment of online claims following detailed consultation with the sector and without major difficulty or delays. We have some good experience of working through the provision of centralised services as opposed to services in individual schools, as would have been the case at the time. There are a number of benefits to centralising services. The costs can be reduced and we can also have more consistent application of arrangements.

Within the Department, we are seeking to develop a shared service expertise and we are working closely with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in that regard. The Government, as a whole, is looking at increasingly putting in place shared services. We recognise that there is a deficiency in the competence of people in public sector employment in developing shared services and, therefore, we are in the process of employing expertise from outside the public service in the implementation of a shared services agenda, and we recognise we need to broaden our experience in that regard.