Professor Declan McGonagle:

As this was before my period in the college, I do not have any detailed information as to why the audit committee would not have been meeting more regularly, but I do know that in that period board members were mostly from outside Dublin and, therefore, travel would have been involved. I have no specific reasons for the period from 2004. I started in late 2008 moving into 2009. A new board was appointed in April 2009. We inherited a set of customs and practices which I think needed reform. The new board, with my appointment, had indicated that a change agenda was what it was interested in, led by academic change for the institution in terms of how the education landscape operated and how NCAD worked within that landscape. That focus became the dominant issue in that period. The year 2009 was a very significant one because it was the first year of the beginning of the cuts in the sector and a very substantial cut to the NCAD. We also had to negotiate new validation for the courses we were offering students because the threat of abolition was hanging over the National University of Ireland, our validating body.

In terms of the brief given to me by the board we embarked on a process of developing a new internal course structure, moving from a four-year to a three-year degree. Going back to some of the previous questions and answers, it is important to understand that the conversations and meetings we have with the HEA and the Department cover more than financial issues. They are obviously underpinned by both funding issues, in terms of the amount of finance and what we can use it for, and also the procedural compliance issues, but they are also about policy.