Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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We, on this committee, have learned something about amalgamations. They have to be properly planned. An audit must be done beforehand to understand exactly where the gaps are going to be and what needs to be provided for. It is clear that the amount of planning that went into these amalgamations was not adequate. That lesson should be learned for future amalgamations. When it presents to us later, very often the wrong people are blamed or in the firing line because they cannot help it if they have three different accounting systems in three different counties in the one ETB. That is the position in which they have found themselves.

There is also a difficulty in terms of economies of scale and trying to find a nimbleness, while being fair to local suppliers. There is a range of things presented repeatedly in the audit to which we are going to have to come at some point because some of that information can be valuable for future amalgamations. The origin of the problems was poor planning.