Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

It was not a tender for services in the typical understanding of a tender for services. We asked local authorities, VECs and other public bodies who might be interested in taking on the responsibility for the grants system to apply to us. This issue had been addressed in an amendment to the student support legislation and we had been advised by the Attorney General's office as part of the work we had done that given we were going to give the centralised function and certain statutory responsibilities, they had to be given to a State body. That did not mean the State body could not outsource a large element of the work, as the CDVEC has done. We had expressions of interest from a range of State bodies and we had a range of State bodies expressing interest in continuing with it. We have made the decision that we will continue with the CDVEC at least in the short term. Even to consider doing anything else would take a number of years of lead-in, so it is not an option not to have the VEC processing next year.

In terms of sanction, obviously we will have to look at the outcome of the review and other reviews. I understand the Comptroller and Auditor General is looking further at the issues. There is no evidence of inappropriate behaviour