Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The establishment day will obviously be after the President has signed the Bill. We are anxious to ensure there is not a premature establishment day. We hope to have everything done by June at the latest and we will probably establish the boards on a sequential basis. Some sections will not commence until everything is in place.

The establishment day is pragmatically based on whether all the accounts will work, will people get paid and given that three administrative systems are being brought together, that all the staff working for the VECs will be paid. The assistant secretary with responsibility in this area, Mr. Martin Hanevy, is talking to the new CEOs who will not have legal powers. In an area where two or three VECs come together, the current VEC which will not become the super VEC is still legally the chief executive for that body. Therefore, there will have to be a degree of co-operation and implementation. I am happy to report there is co-operation. As it is a big logistical exercise the establishment days will be fixed and there will be attempts to simulate everything to ensure it will work. There are enough adjustment difficulties without compounding them. I would hope the vast bulk of operational commissioning will be completed by the end of June.

I do not wish to presume how the House will vote but we should be in a position to have the Bill signed off by the President from the middle of April onwards. However, it will have to go back to the other House with a couple of additional changes. I envisage that happening in the period from May to end June.