David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur with everything my colleague, Deputy McDonald has said in the first instance and also the opening comments of the Chairman on the out-of-date and archaic accounts which were presented to us. This prevents the members of the Committee of Public Accounts from doing our job. Our job is to ensure that we do a look-back exercise over how taxpayers' money is spent. We need information from State bodies, institutes of technology and universities to allow us to do our job fairly. We always put questions without fear or favour. Our only role is to protect taxpayers and the interests of institutes, be they institutes of technology or universities.

Dr. Graham Love appeared before the committee a number of weeks ago. It was probably his first appearance before the Committee of Public Accounts and in his opening statement he stated the Higher Education Authority, HEA, had done a review of governanceacross different sectors. What strikes me, and Deputy McDonald referred to it, is that no review was conducted on intellectual property spin-outs. My understanding is that the spin-outs are in part the responsibility of an arm of Enterprise Ireland. I think that is completely unacceptable because Enterprise Ireland has a vested interest. In my view it must be anchored in the HEA and the Department of Education and Skills.There are question marks around who is minding the shop and who within institutes is protecting the interests of those institutes. It appears to me that the institutes are at arm's length from the Department and the HEA. The institutes are given far too much latitude and far too much independence. The relationship between the HEA and the Department of Education and Skills and the institutes is not what it should be in terms of governance and oversight. I agree with my colleague that it is not good enough for the members of this committee. The members of the Committee of Public Accounts do their best. We invite people to appear before the committee and put them through their paces, in that we ask them questions and listen to their responses and then that is the end of it. The following year we do the same and the same problems come up. That is not good enough. I agree with the comments made by Teachta McDonald that it is a bit like the wild west in terms of how some of this has been managed. This is not acceptable. I concur that the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, notwithstanding its heavy workload and resource issues, should do a special report on the spin-outs from intellectual property. In my view this area is completely unregulated. It is absolutely light-touch regulation. We will see examples of this when one of the institutes comes before us. I concur with the recommendation that the Comptroller and Auditor General would do a special report but also that both the HEA and the Department of Education and Skills would furnish us with reports on governance and oversight on accounts, managing conflicts of interest and the whistleblowers issue that Deputy McDonald raised.