Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

No. In respect of the specific document that the Chair referenced, a rebranding may have occurred. I am aware of Institutes of Technology Ireland but I think it changed its name. That is just incidental. Perhaps in earlier documents there may have been a reference to it.

The Chair is correct. There are these three entities. We do not audit them. We do have engagement with them from time to time. I refer, in particular, to when there are issues around the financial statements of institutes of technology, universities or ETBs. We engage with them in the interest of ensuring that our requirements are met when we come to audit and that published financial statements are as comprehensive and compliant as possible. The codes of governance that they produce are reacting to the revised code of practice for the governance of State bodies which was published in 2016. It was a significant document. It touches on the point that there are these kinds of significant documents, that turn on how public bodies account for their performance.

The committee should be alerted to that and have the opportunity to understand what changes are happening and why and ensure that all matters of significance to members are addressed in them. There is a bit of tailoring going on with the code of practice to take account of the specific terminology and issues that arise for institutes of technology and universities. It is a matter which is significant. There are contributors to the system and framework in which third-level bodies account for their performance and it would be better if there was more involvement of those and greater visibility of them to committees like this.