Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

May I follow up on the legislation and the governing bodies? This is the question about the size, purpose and function of the governing bodies, and there has been a certain amount of debate on this. As somebody who was involved in campaigning to ensure there was student representation on governing bodies in the Universities Act, I think it is important there is input, but there is the core issue that governing bodies should act as bodies corporate as opposed to being representative of each sector. I would like to hear the witnesses' views on that. In other words, how do we get a governing body that acts in the best interests of the institution as a whole rather than one that simply listens to representative voices, either internal or external?

My second question is about the role of the HEA when there is a requirement in respect of either sanction or reward for institutions. This comes back to my earlier question. If an institution is found not to be meeting whatever requirements there are, whether it is about levels of student engagement or whether there is a question about how it has spent particular sums of money - and the witnesses will be aware of issues that have been raised before the Committee of Public Accounts - what sanction, and what mechanism for that sanction, do the witnesses believe would be appropriate to build into this legislation?