Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

On a general point it struck me that on the issues on remuneration in excess of ministerially approved levels and to a certain extent the employment control framework issue in Trinity College, there may be a difference of experience of third level institutions in issues of sanction. Universities have come under a much stricter control system since the introduction of the Universities Act 1997. It takes time for an institution that is used to doing a thing in a particular way to understand and knuckle down to controls that may be alien to it. To a certain extent that may be part of the background to the confusion about the Waterford Institute of Technology case and dealing with the committee.

Deputy Fleming's point about getting a sectoral view and having an overview of what we are doing with the money is a very important point and we will keep pushing that idea of focusing on what bodies are achieving with the money. That is why we have tried on a number of occasions to produce reports that try to give a sectoral view and identify sectoral issues. I suppose the individual difficulties in individual institutions will be the test of where those systems need to be further enhanced. Hopefully they will contribute to feedback to the HEA and the Department on areas in which controls need to be strengthened.