Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A number of amendments were made on Report Stage in the other House to ensure the proper accountability of the new education and training boards. Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 will ensure that in the transition from VECs to ETBs, there is no gap in the obligation to respond to the Committee of Public Accounts on the VECs' financial activity. Moreover, the chief executive of an education and training board will be accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts for matters arising during the tenure of the former VEC from which it has taken over responsibility.

The purpose of amendment No. 9 is to amend the accounts provision in order that the 1 April date for the submission of accounts each year to the Comptroller and Auditor General may be varied by the Minister. This is likely to be of most importance in the first year, when ETBs will be obliged to submit the final accounts of each of the former VECs not later than the same time as they submit the first set of accounts for the new ETBs. Given that they may have a number of sets of accounts to file in their first year, this amendment will ease any unnecessary pressure on the new bodies created by a 1 April deadline. Amendment No. 8 is simply a drafting amendment and replaces the words "financial year" with "accounting period" to ensure there is consistency throughout section 51.

Finally, the purpose of amendment No. 10 is to ensure that education and training boards are required to submit to the Comptroller and Auditor General any accounts that are outstanding at the time of the VECs' dissolution. Once those accounts have been audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the education and training board will be responsible for presenting them and the auditor's report to the Minister. The latter will then arrange for them to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in the normal way. This will ensure there is no gap in the obligation to file and lay accounts, which might otherwise occur as a result of the transition from the VECs to the ETBs.

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