Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

There is no doubt that procurement is a difficult and quite technical process that has costs associated with it. It may be that institutions are adopting a type of least-cost approach because they do not want to incur that cost or, in particular circumstances, feel it is not warranted. As I said, it is a matter of how one deals with it. The Department of Education and Skills and the Higher Education Authority are in the front line in this area and the delegates may be able to cast light on it during the course of today's meeting. I expect we will hear about compliance reviews they are doing as part of which they are looking at some of these issues in a more systematic way. I understand they are focusing on procurement.