David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to go over the history of the matte because most people here already know it. We had lengthy discussions on this with the Department in the past. We had similar discussions with the HEA when it became obvious that it was not able to publish the report it had done because it was outside its remit. It looked like the Minister, through the appointment of a special investigator by the Department, was the only option. I would like to draw the attention of colleagues to the second last paragraph of the letter that came back, which mentions that there had been a need to follow up with everyone who had submitted correspondence to the previous review, the report of which cannot now be published. According to this letter, the correspondence and documentation subsequently received by the Department - the follow-up documentation - sets out a number of concerns relating to the management of conflicts of interest. That was essentially our point from day one. My point all along has been that the concerns which have been outlined, some of which were the subject of a report, cannot be left hanging. We know it is probable that the report would have set out some of those concerns, but the HEA was just not able to publish it. Is it going to be left hanging? The Chairman is right when he says that the Department has come back to say it is still looking at whether further action is warranted. If concerns relating to the management of potential conflicts of interest which have been documented by individuals still exist, there is a responsibility on the Department to follow them up. It may or may not transpire that these matters were managed properly, but we cannot adjudicate on that. It is not our job to adjudicate on it. That is why we have a process. Special investigators are appointed to establish the facts and report on them. That needs to be done in this case to give closure to the issue. If it is not done, all of these issues will continue to be raised by individuals within the institute, those individuals will not get any satisfaction and - more to the point - the facts will not be established. We need to go back to the Department to say that if serious concerns are still being documented and sent to it, it has an obligation and a responsibility to follow them up.