Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to our witnesses for the late start this afternoon. The morning session took quite a bit of time, and then the voting session in the Dáil took much longer than expected. We will proceed with this afternoon's business. We will continue with our follow-up on the third level education sector. For this session, we are joined by Professor Brian Norton, Dr. Noel O'Connor, Mr. Colm Whelan and Dr. Philip Cohen from Dublin Institute of Technology; and by Dr. Brendan Murphy and Mr. Paul Gallagher from Cork Institute of Technology. We are also joined by Ms Colette Drinan, director of audit at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, in substitution for Mr. Seamus McCarthy.

I ask Ms Drinan to make a brief opening statement on Cork Institute of Technology, since representatives from it were not here at the last meeting. Then I will ask Professor Norton and Dr. Murphy for opening statements, if they have statements.