David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The policy then states: "Any individual who is related to, reports to, or is a business partner of someone who would be considered to a have a conflict of interest may also have a conflict of interest". If the head of research and innovation or the president or both have multiple shareholdings in companies that are co-located in the institute in which those people have a governance role and their business partners also have interests in several companies also co-located on the campus - one of whom was the chief executive officer of TSSG at one point and would have worn a different hat again in respect of the governance of TSSG - given what the policy says, there was a matrix of conflicts of interest. I am trying to figure out how someone would have been able to disentangle themselves from so many different companies in which he and his business partners would have had a relationship. Is it not reasonable to have an arm's length relationship between people who have management and governance roles such as presidents, vice-presidents or heads of research in institutes and their business partners or shareholders in multiple companies? Does he not recognise the difficulty in that and the reasonableness of the question I have put?

My final question relates to the external review. Ms Sheridan carried out the internal review. Is it correct that she is a subordinate of Professor Donnelly's?