Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask the HEA about this.

Over the past two years, more by default, information has come out such as the absence of robust policies. Even if they are there, they are not implemented. Mr. Donnelly has pointed out, which is in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report, that a policy was introduced in 2004 but not implemented until 2010. Subsequently, there was another policy but there was a significant delay in implementing it. Even if policies are in place, they are not actually acted on or implemented.

In addition, we now have a thumbs-up for the commercialisation of research and intellectual property. That is not value for money for the public purse, which is providing the universities and the institutes of technology with funding. Who does the assessment in terms of value for money for the taxpayer? What I am getting here is a thumbs-up for €62.3 million on expenditure with a tiny amount of a return. It also involved years of research. I could go back to 1996, when I look at the literature, up to 2014 when it was sold. Who has valued that for the public purse?