Ms Oonagh Fleming:

The Senator's correspondents raised the issue of the financial reporting requirements under core funding and the fact that they already report to Revenue, perhaps the Companies Registration Office and perhaps the Charities Regulator. The periods they report against are different. Everybody registered with the Companies Registration Office has their own annual return date.

The Form 11 return to Revenue would be their annual report and that runs from January to the end of December. Our funding year is the school year running from September to the end of August so that would give rise to two Form 11 returns from Revenue to cover the period we were looking for. We needed the chart of accounts, which is the list of nominal codes, in order to be sure that we were getting consistency in inputs across the entire sector so that we would understand the cost drivers in each of the different sizes and styles of service. I am using sole traders as an example but percentage wise across our sector, it is almost half and half between companies, including not-for-profit companies, and sole traders, which would include child minders. They are making Form 11 returns to Revenue and by tomorrow they will have returned their Form 11 for 2022. That will cover our period from September to the end of December 2022. The Form 11 for the period from January to the end of August 2023 is not due to be returned until next year. That gap in the information around the financial understandings of the services means it is too late for us to be able to design a response, from a policy perspective, to what they are experiencing. Our requirement is against our programme year, so that we can match it against the funds that are going in, to see what changes need to be made. The providers who have done their Form 11 now have those accounts prepared for September to the end of December. They will also have paid preliminary tax for 2023 at the same point in time which has to be as good as they can make it, accuracy wise. In that sense, they must have looked at their financial whereabouts between January and the end of October in order to make a good estimate of the preliminary tax they need to pay. Underpayment of preliminary tax can give rise to financial penalties so most people do take it seriously. They will have to prepare those accounts to get them to a trial balance for us before they have to return them to Revenue. We acknowledge that but when it comes to the return for Revenue, they will already have eight months done, so they will only have the next four to do. It is not quite two sets of accounts but rather a question of timing. Some of the preparation they will be doing for us means they will have that work done when they are submitting their return at the right time to Revenue or to the Companies Office, whichever they have to return to.