Mr. Tom Boland:

The presidents of institutes are obliged to operate under the normal travel and subsistence rules issued by the Department of Finance. Immediately after the last meeting of this committee we wrote to all the institutes of technology regarding a range of issues arising from the meeting. The letter reminded all higher education institutions that they are required to comply with proper procedures in regard to travel and expenses and that codes of governance were agreed at a sectoral level to provide for a range of effective measures with regard to procedures for procurement, tendering, financial reporting, internal audit and travel. It is not a common practice and, obviously, we would not stand over it.