Mr. Tom Boland:

The key outcome the Government and the Irish people should expect for an investment of €2.5 billion is that the higher education sector provides the skills and related competencies needed by the economy, the IDA and society more generally. In the past two years, we have introduced a very specific system for assessing the performance of the sector and the performance of individual institutions against stated national objectives. This strategic dialogue, or performance management, tool is very valuable to ensure the higher education sector delivers what it is supposed to deliver. In addition, we have a robust system of governance and accountability for the higher education sector. There is no dispute among the institutions or anybody else that all of the institutions are accountable to the Government through the HEA and the Department of Education and Skills for every cent they spend, and by and large the system of governance works well.

Deputy McDonald mentioned earlier that procurement is honoured more in the breach than in the observance, and in fairness I take issue with this. Procurement in any one year amounts to approximately €1 billion and, overwhelmingly, it is done properly. This is not in any way to excuse those instances in which it is not done properly, and there is zero tolerance of these types of departure from the norm, although putting it into practice can be somewhat difficult. By and large, there is a strong higher education system delivering what Ireland needs. It is well governed at institutional level and there is a good governance and accountability system in place. I have said before that no system of governance is exempt from human error, and it will happen. The particular job of the HEA is to ensure when it does happen that proper action is taken so it does not happen again.