Professor Willie Donnelly:

I want to answer that. I am a fairly outspoken person and I have a particular style but I fully support the work of this committee.

On protected disclosures, the institute has a structure and a process in place for dealing with same. I want to put on the record that the institute takes them very seriously and when we get protected disclosures, they are fully investigated and they are overseen by an independent board. I can also tell the Deputy, as president of the institute, that where there are protected disclosures, the president never knows what the detail of them is.

They are fully investigated and the institute takes action. What I would like to say to anybody, particularly those associated with the institute, is that if the institute or anybody associated with it has information and wants to use a protected disclosure system, that system is in place in WIT, as it is in all other institutes.