David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank Mr. O'Toole for his opening statement. On the WIT report, representatives of the institute will be before us this afternoon but they will be here to deal with the special report of the Comptroller and Auditor General which dealt with only one small element of spin-outs, the issue of FeedHenry. As Mr. O'Toole will know, the HEA's report was much more substantial. The 50 whistleblowers are not looking for gratitude. That is the first point I will make. They will be thankful for any gratitude they are given, but that is not what they want. They have engaged in a process.

My question is both for Mr. O'Toole and for the Department. I know that the Secretary General is not in a position to respond so somebody else from the Department will have to. The legal advice is that the draft report which is in situcannot be published because it strayed outside the powers of the HEA. It is still unclear what that means. Was it the case that the conclusions which were drawn were so significant that they strayed outside those powers or was it an issue with the remit and terms of reference in the first instance? That has not been clarified for us. In any event, when Dr. Love was before the committee before the end of last year, he said that the facts are the same, that the facts established are not in question, and that rather it is a question of the powers.

The issue is what happens next. It should not be a matter of politely responding to the 50 people who engaged, thanking them very much, and giving them our gratitude, but a matter of deciding what to do now. Mr. Ó Foghlú or somebody else from the Department can respond to this. There is the potential for the Department to appoint a statutory inspector to examine this. That has happened in Waterford and other areas. Are we looking at a commission of inquiry?

What is the mechanism now to deal with these issues? Serious questions have been raised by whistleblowers. An additional whistleblower has come forward and will possibly be an aspect of whatever happens next. The HEA board will examine this but I do not know whether it has any authority to contact a Minister or look at other options. That probably falls to the Department. I will strongly state - I seek the support of the committee on this - that we certainly will not be letting this lie and that that will be the end of it because we overstepped the mark in the context of our powers. That might have been the case - and that is sloppy on the part of the HEA - but what happens next? Before the end of this meeting, I want the HEA and the Department to outline what are the options. We will certainly be following through on that.