Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

That is of assistance in giving the Deputy a full answer. I would like to deal with a number of issues. Actions are to be taken on foot of the findings of the investigators and as the Deputy said, further courses on bullying are being arranged for all members of staff, including the CEO, building on the considerable work that has been carried out in Waterways Ireland over the past two years to put in place appropriate mechanisms for dealing with bullying and harassment in the workplace, with practically all staff now having been trained.

A full independent review of practices and policies relating to bullying in the organisation will be carried out at an early date. The review will include an audit of the current processes and training programmes in Waterways Ireland in regard to bullying and the possible setting up of an independent mechanism to support staff making complaints. The report will be made available to the Department. Those issues, therefore, are being dealt with.

On the third aspect the Deputy raised, the CEO will personally ensure that a written policy on recruitment and promotions based on best practice principles, including fairness and transparency, will be prepared and circulated to all staff in Waterways Ireland and that best public sector practice will be followed in future appointments and promotions within Waterways Ireland.

I would like to deal with the money issue because for a number of reasons it is not as simple as it appears. The first issue that arises is that the organisation was to build a headquarters in Enniskillen as well as two regional offices. The one in Scariff is already under construction and it is hoped to start building the headquarters in Enniskillen next year.

In terms of what happened, a number of years ago a capital provision was made for Waterways Ireland for these buildings. I do not have the exact figure here but if, say, €3 million or whatever was put into the funding in one year and it was not spent, that funding would be put back in a second year and, if not spent, the same amount of money would be put in a third year. People were talking about money going back to the Department but it is the same money allocated three times for the same purpose. It would be like the Deputy putting aside €30,000 to build an addition to his house, not getting around to doing it, leaving it the following year but doing it the third year. He would not have €90,000; it would be €30,000 held back over three years. In a Government situation, as the Deputy is aware, the money is either returned to the Exchequer or reallocated and then put back into the Vote. The underspends, therefore, are not quite as they appear.

Part of the underspend was due to delays in recruitment. Those are being dealt with although there are still difficulties in getting technical staff, including engineers.

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