Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He reserved the right of his board to take a final view and I welcome that. Before doing so, the board should bear in mind that this is all about how things are going to be managed in the future. All anyone has to do at the moment is get the permission of the vice president of finance to spend whatever he or she likes, which means this could happen again if the vice president of finance is disposed to agreeing to an ice sculpture, the hiring of a band and so forth. That is a problem. There is also no sanction. Where is the tangible sanction which demonstrates to every institution that the HEA condemns the use of €13,000 of taxpayers' money on this type of hospitality? Where is the condemnation of the use of public money for a portrait? The institute had so little confidence in its own art faculty that it did not even commission a student but paid €20,000 to an external person to do it. There should be no ambiguity here and there should be echoes of condemnation from the Department.