Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the clarification about deficits. Following on from Deputy Cullinane's comments, we need to prioritise Dr. Love coming in here. We need to really prioritise it and put it at the top of our agenda. I found the letter saying that he was going to be very alarming. Its tone suggests that he possibly needs to talk to us. It would be a good exercise. As we saw from the discussions, we really need to tease out the issue of the relationship between the HEA and the Department. There are obviously problems there and issues that would be of concern to this committee. These issues fall back to the report that we did on third level which appear as though they are not being cleared up.

The demarcation lines, responsibility and who does what are unclear. Obviously that raises a range of issues relating to accountability and expenditure. We should invite Dr. Love to appear before the committee. There are also specific issues relating to some of the third level colleges and issues relating to WIT on which he needs to speak. Furthermore, there are considerable issues relating to Carlow Institute of Technology, CIT, and a number of other institutions as well. When we do our work programme we should prioritise this and invite Dr. Love and representatives of the Department of Education and Skills to appear before the committee at the same time.