David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is an outsourcing of oversight by the HEA to KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst and Young and so on. Why does the HEA not have the in-house capacity and experience to do that work itself? Why is further money being spent on these organisations? The institutes are hiring and paying them over and over again. That the organisations benefit from being hired by the institutes must have some impact on their work. I am not satisfied that that is truly independent. That view is shared by some other committee members. There is a practice of outsourcing of governance and oversight and that is not good enough. Mr. Love has said he will revert to the committee with the breakdown. However, I am concerned that that is what I am hearing from him today and it is also my experience from dealing with these matters over recent months in this committee.