Professor Willie Donnelly:

I need to respond to that statement. I would express concern as well and that is why I said there has to be a conflict of interest policy. That is what it is there for. Ours are large, complex organisations. In all cases, there are conflicts of interest and we need to manage them. For instance, we have heads of research who are married to lecturers who report in to them. In the terms of appointments, there are conflicts of interest. One needs to manage them. One cannot say one cannot appoint someone as head of school because, at some stage in the near future, one may find that one's wife or husband is applying for a job and one is conflicted. One steps aside. In the case about which the Deputy is talking, where there were interests in respect of which I was involved in campus companies, as was my right legally, I stepped aside.