Dr. Graham Love:

That is a very significant one. It has driven a lot over the past year.

We found it very difficult in the case of Limerick previously in terms of our capacity to go in and look at the situation that had arisen there for a number of years. Members will know about the whistleblowers, etc. The issue is quite significant there as well. It is in this regard that one finds who has the power or the role to go in, or the legislative basis to do so. There is a perception that it should be the HEA, but we found we are not able to do so in many cases as we are prevented by legislation, whether it is the Universities Act or our own Act, that of 1971.

May I make a general point that might be of assistance in generally colouring this palette? The HEA's role is changing significantly. The allocation of funding role is staying the same. The organisation has been doing this for 30 years very well. The gathering of statistics and producing of intelligence about the system for policy advice are being done very well, in the main, but, since the Colin Hunt report of 2011, which turned into the national strategy for higher education, a significant regulatory oversight role has been given to the HEA. The policy has developed quite a bit over the past few years but the legislation underpinning it has not matched that. That is where we have run into trouble. A classic role change is taking place in an agency that is driving some of this greyness. That is an opinion but-----