Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The staff of ETBI are on the payroll of certain education and training boards. For instance, I think the secretary general of ETBI is a staff member of Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board seconded to ETBI. It is a system that is used in the Department to create, if one likes, national functions, but they are distributed and paid for by the line entities. For instance, internal audit for ETBs is located in a number of the ETBs as well. It is something that is worth pursuing with the Department as to what are these national functions that are run through local organisations. If Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board has a staff member who is employed in ETBI in a senior position, maybe the committee could suggest that he or she be brought along to contribute. As well as that, the non-pay costs of ETBI are paid from contributions from the individual ETBs.