Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for being here. I would like to explore the role and modus operandiof the governing body. In response to the previous questions, Ms Harney said "we trusted what was put before us". This committee could probably use that as a good title for most of the issues we deal with, where boards are simply not capable of or not willing to face up to the executive. This is not specifically confined to UL; unfortunately, it is widespread.

I will ask a few questions to try to get a sense of how the board operated. Ms Harney mentioned that the university's opening offer for the Dunnes Stores site was €6 million. Was the board aware of that offer being made at the time?