Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

It is not so much about self-governance, it is a set of statutory rules. For example, membership of governing bodies and so on is not about self-governance; it is just governance. Institutions have to be able to operate independently. There cannot be command and control in how institutions are run as that would not work and we would not have our responsive education system in meeting the need for skills. Dr. Love spoke about the responsiveness of the system. There have been significant developments in recent years in the work of the National Skills Council and the engagement of the human capital of the institutions. These aspects are best enabled by having responsive institutions taking responsibility. If the Department was to oversee and control higher education institutes, I could guarantee it would not work and it would have a worse outcome for Ireland's future economic development.