Ms Joan Donegan:

Yes, and, as the Senator says, most of the money has been spent very well. There is also the rigorous employment control framework that has been put in place over the past ten years, since the financial crisis. I can tell the Senator as somebody who is at the coalface that when you go in to try to resolve issues, and if they are in any way connected in monetary terms, it is very difficult. Universities cannot come to some agreement with the trade union movement in resolving issues; they have to go higher than that, even to the Department.

It conforms with Government policy. I do not understand the reason for this focus on governance in our institutions.

Regarding the current structures, our academic staff members who are on governing authorities are elected by their peers. That is positive because there is a sense that it is democratic and a trust that they will oversee how things are done. If that representation is to be reduced, it will cause concerns.

After this Bill was proposed, we only had a short time in which to examine it. I believe it was a weekend, which was then extended to two weeks. Most of our academics have been extraordinarily busy because of Covid. I have no doubt that, when people hopefully return to normality in September, there will be significant concerns about what the Bill contains. Speaking as general secretary of IFUT, this is a very serious matter. My sense is that the Bill will go through in a short time - I understand that the Minister wants to have it done and dusted by the end of the year - and there will be consequences.