Mr. Robert Watt:

Our role is to set appropriate policy and guidelines, which we have done, and we have refreshed those again on foot of this report. It is up to the relevant body to ensure that any payments are appropriate and that the parent Department, in this case the Department of Education and Skills, would be informed and that it would receive sanction. However, there is a bigger issue here around governance. Our education institutions have budgets of hundreds of million of euro, amounting to €400 million, €500 million or €600 million. I am not here to defend the Department of Education and Skills but it cannot decide everything; it cannot be there standing behind the president of a governing body. The ultimate responsibility for doing the right thing rests with the leadership and the governance structures within these bodies. That is the real challenge for us in this situation. We need to set the right policy which, we hopefully will do, but it is then up to the relevant bodies to ensure it is being implemented appropriately, or else the system will not function. If we say the Department of Education and Skills will sanction this payment, and that is what we are saying now, where do we draw the line? Do we want the Department of Education and Skills to run third level institutions? No, we do not want that. Therefore, there is a balance to be struck. As we pursue the new policy, it will be interesting to see the extent to which it will operate.