Mr. Stiofán Ó Cúláin:

It is a subsidiary company of Údarás and we own it. Muintearas Teoranta provides a whole range of training, education and early childhood services in disadvantaged areas and has done so for the past 20 years or so. It has a very good record and a good operation, but it came to light at the end of that period that an overpayment had been made to them for the crèche part of their services. We looked at the matter and asked for an independent audit, which was carried out. The sum involved was €124,000, which had to be repaid. Through negotiation - Pobal allowed some other services that were not included - the sum came down to €100,000, which is still a very large sum. Our primary concern was that the service be allowed to continue, because the company has existed for the past 20 years. It is in a building that cost a couple of million to put in place, towards which we got a grant from Pobal at the time. The service had been running very well and there had been no issue up to then.

Through a series of negotiations and meetings between Pobal, ourselves and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, we came to an agreement that €100,000 was to be repaid, and also that it would not be done immediately, because that would probably sink the company. It was agreed that the sum would be repaid over a period of five years. To date, we are down to €28,000 outstanding on that account. It will be cleared and fully paid back to the State by 2016.