John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We were all confronted by what was required of us from 2007 onwards. Everyone started to do, as the expression went, more with less. People covered off in different ways, as it were, but the accounts were always presented. What we are confronted with here today is typical of the public service generally from what I can see here every Thursday, so it does not shock me in a way. I have been shock-proof in recent years. What is disturbing about this is the attempt to explain it all away as if some grand explanation and narrative can take this off into the ether and nobody gets to look in depth at what happened because we are planning for the future. Mr. Boland was here with us previously in connection with Waterford Institute of Technology and I must say that I would have serious reservations about the work Mr. Boland's organisation conducts. This is an example and Waterford Institute of Technology is an example. We are moving to more examples in the next few minutes. Mr. Boland has a lot to account for in terms of his stewardship of the HEA.