Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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818. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will implement the recommendations of the recent internal audit in the provision of the early childhood care and education scheme; and if he will outline a timescale for same. [32657/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Internal Audit of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme was initiated by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs as part of a programme of Internal Audits to review all major expenditure programmes in the Department. A total of some €175 million is spent on the ECCE scheme annually in which some 68,000 children receive free pre-school care. Objective review and audit of such a significant scheme is integral to the assurance of financial control and achievement of value for money in the public sector. The Department is a new department and it is to be expected that it should properly examine all major programmes for which it has been given responsibility.

In response to all Department of Children and Youth Affairs Audit Report findings, a management action plan is put in place to ensure any issues identified are fully addressed. The action plan for the ECCE Internal Audit report is already being implemented and there is oversight of this process by the Department’s Audit Committee. This Audit Committee is made up of a majority of external members, including its chair.

Significant reform of Pobal’s operations in relation to this and other programmes administered on behalf of the Department was already underway prior to the Internal Audit and the findings of the Internal Audit have been incorporated into this change programme. Work is advanced in changing the fee structure between the Department and Pobal away from a percentage administration fee and to an agreed charge based upon full costing and external benchmarking. This is being undertaken across all programmes administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department and will be incorporated into a new three year Service Level Agreement. This will see Pobal funded for each activity on the basis of objective costs with the potential for cross-subsidy between different activities undertaken on behalf of the Department eliminated.

Pobal is implementing a project to improve the use of information technology in the operation of the ECCE programme. It is intended that this will provide the Department with greater access to real-time information and address a number of the findings of the Internal Audit.