Dr. Graham Love:

Certainly I have been frustrated. I was attracted to the job because of development work such as pushing along the universities and institutes of technology. As Deputy David Cullinane referred to, I am passionate about this stuff and research. Ireland's talent is its main chance. We do not have a big internal market, or oil and other resources. Our people, their education and smarts are what Ireland has to offer; it is what makes living standards high in this country. I really believe in them. In my year and a half with the HEA I have struggled to advance this work significantly, for some of the reasons I have laid out in my letter. Frankly, all four aspects are interrelated in terms of legislation. For example, the term "dominance of the compliance and regulatory agenda" may be a poor choice of words, but it has subsumed me and much of our team. We have not been able to work enough on the really good initiatives because of the time available.