Mr. Tom Boland:

First, there was a clear failure of the accounting procedures in governance in Waterford Institute of Technology. There is no gainsaying that. The role of the HEA is to ensure there are processes in place in the institutes and in universities that will ensure internal controls are effective. By and large, they are. Overwhelmingly they are in the system. It is not possible for the HEA, given its role, to identify the lapses or misconduct of this sort. When they arise, I see our function as to ensure action is taken to address them promptly, to review the system of controls that is in place and to make any changes that are necessary. We are engaged in that. I mentioned that the HEA is looking at our regulatory governance functions in this context but also in the context of the broader mandate of the HEA to see what additional procedures or powers we might have to make our system more effective. There is no circumstance in which the HEA has a responsibility to look regularly at the individual elements of expenditure in an institution. That is, as the Secretary General described it, a function ultimately of the cascade of accountability within the institution itself.