56. (1) The Agency may, subject to its available resources and having regard to the required level of service identified in the corporate plan or annual business plan and any directions issued by the Minister F47[or the Minister for Education] under section 47, enter, on such terms and conditions as it considers appropriate, into an arrangement with a person for the provision of child and family services or services provided pursuant to section 8(3)(b).

(2) Before entering into an arrangement under subsection (1), the Agency shall determine, in respect of a financial year of the Agency, the maximum amount of funding (whether capital funding or non-capital funding) that it proposes to make available during the course of that year under such an arrangement and the level of service it expects to be provided for that funding.

(3) A service provider shall—

(a) keep in such form as may be approved by the Agency in accordance with any general direction issued by the Minister, all proper and usual accounts and records of income received and expenditure incurred by it,

(b) submit such accounts annually for audit, and

(c) supply a copy of the audited accounts and the auditor’s certificate and report on the accounts to the Agency within such period as may be specified by the Agency.

(4) The expenses of an audit of accounts submitted in accordance with subsection (3) are payable by the service provider submitting them for audit.

(5) Subsection (3) does not apply to a service provider—

(a) who in any financial year receives from the Agency in respect of services provided on foot of an arrangement entered into under subsection (1) an amount of money that does not exceed an amount of money or a percentage of the annual income of that service provider that may be determined by the Board with the approval of the Minister, or

(b) who belongs to a category of service provider specified by the Minister.

(6) The Agency may make such arrangements as it considers appropriate to monitor—

(a) the expenditure incurred in the provision of services by service providers exempted under subsection (5), and

(b) the provision of those services by such service providers.

(7) The service providers referred to in subsection (6) shall facilitate arrangements made by the Agency under that subsection.

(8) The Agency may request from a service provider any information that it considers material to the provision of a service by the service provider.

(9) A service provider shall comply with a request made under subsection (8).

(10) Where a service provider fails to comply with a request under subsection (8)—

(a) the Agency shall not enter into an arrangement under subsection (1) with that provider, and

(b) where such an arrangement has been entered into, the Agency may terminate the arrangement concerned.

F48[(11) When requested to do so by the Minister or, where the request relates to the provision of services by a service provider in respect of the education welfare functions of the Agency, the Minister for Education, the Agency shall supply the Minister concerned with any information obtained in response to a request under subsection (8).]

(12) Nothing in this Act shall empower the Agency to delegate to a service provider the duty imposed on it under section 4 of the Child Care Act 1991 to take a child into its care or to make an application for an order under Part III, IV, IVA (as amended by the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2011) or VI of that Act.

(13) The Minister may F47[, other than in relation to the matters referred to in subsection (13A),] prescribe requirements in respect of—

(a) the expenditure incurred by the Agency in the provision of services by service providers, and

(b) the provision of those services by service providers.

F47[(13A) The Minister for Education may make regulations to provide for the requirements in respect of—

(a) the expenditure incurred by the Agency in the provision of services by service providers in respect of the education welfare functions of the Agency, and

(b) the provision of those services by service providers.

(13B) Regulations under subsection (13A) may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister for Education to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations.

(13C) Every regulation made by the Minister for Education under subsection (13A) shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House sits after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.]

(14) For the avoidance of doubt, an arrangement under this section shall not give rise to an employment relationship between a service provider, its employees or agents on the one hand and the Agency on the other.

(15) In this section “service provider”means a person involved in the provision of child and family services otherwise than for profit, which services, in the opinion of the Agency, are services that are similar to activities carried out by the Agency and consistent with its functions.