Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 15 May 2014

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 12 - Contract Management in Education PPP Projects
Financial Accounts 2012

Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

We organise delivery through the mechanisms to which I referred for all types of school, not just ETB schools. For example, a large number of new Educate Together schools have been built in recent years under the rapid delivery programme, in which cases the board of management is not as involved as it would be in the case of a traditional build. We are very conscious of the types of issue to which the Deputy is referring, which is why the Department, with the strong support of the Minister, put in place the system of random audits. It ensures we have a mechanism outside of the formal mechanisms involving the likes of Revenue and NERA to address these concerns. If a school has concerns, there are channels through which it can communicate them.