Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

The CEO has very much summarised the situation. We have a very clear policy framework for engagement with institutes of technologies, IOTs, in deficit. Stage 1 of that project requires them to produce a three-year financial plan to bring them back to a balanced budget. If they cannot show a way out within three years, then we agree the appointment of an external financial expert with them. We have a financial expert working with WIT and a number of other vulnerable institutes at present to do a real deep dive and to report to the governing authority around any remedial action that can be taken to address the financial situation. We also have the power, unlike in the universities, within the Institutes of Technology Act, to ask the Minister to appoint an inspector to look at a particular situation in an IOT.