Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The focus should be on the HEA's role when difficulties arise rather on the difficulties that arise relating to individual colleges. It becomes more complex if one is trying to get detail from 30 institutions. The detail muddies the water in that situation. The focus of the report we are preparing concerns the framework the HEA put in place in respect of the governance and oversight of colleges. The audit certification and reporting by my office is the system for monitoring the implementation of it. The question then arises as to how the HEA follows up on issues brought to its attention or how it routinely takes the financial statements and analyses them.

In the case of Waterford Institute of Technology, I have referred to deficits being incurred in a number of years. That is not the only institute of technology where there is a deficit problem at the moment. The question arises as to what the response is when one sees a trend in a particular sector.