Mr. Jim Lennon:

The Deputy also raised the question of value for money. That has certainly been almost a core perception from the day the centre was set up. We have clear routines for ensuring both jurisdictions get value for money, and the best way of doing that is by monitoring the use of professional time, that is, where the bulk of the time is spent, and we have a clear 50:50 split. Even though in Ireland it may relate to only 12 children, there is still value in terms of the research, the training and the production of information and resources based on a split of professional time.

That was looked at in some detail in the 2016 inspection, not least by the inspectorate from Dublin, and work was done to be clear that was happening. We have more or less retained that model because it was the one we originally agreed when we tried to put the business case forward in 2012. That is now a bit dated and it needs tweaking but it is still the basis of the current resource allocation. There are jurisdictional issues. We are subject to ministerial agreement. We are not a statutory body, so we do not need statutory legislation per seto make the changes, but it does have to go through the North-South Ministerial Council and the ministerial agreements. We are still bound by the 50:50 funding rules, split between each jurisdiction, which means that, to a degree, it is sometimes dependent on which jurisdiction can more or less afford it, and that has been an issue in the past. The Deputy will be aware of some of the difficulties at the moment in Northern Ireland, for example, relating to budgets and so on.

These are issues we will look at with the two departments, as the Chair said, and with the board to plan the second phase of where we will take the centre. Both jurisdictions and exchequers have made significant investment in the centre and it has proven to be a successful investment. We are now debating what is the best way of scaling that up and operationalising it in order that the benefit will be maximised.