Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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Dr. Wall and his team are very welcome. Time is limited so I will try to be as brief as possible with my questions and I would appreciate if the witnesses would give me brief replies so that I can get through the questions I want to ask.

The HEA is the statutory funding authority for all the higher education institutes on the capital and current sides. In particular, I wish to pay attention to University of Limerick, UL, and the Dunnes Stores site. We had representatives from the university before the committee recently. Professor Mey accepted that how this was handled was not best practice. There was no written valuation. The site was valued two years prior to purchase at €3 million but there was an €8 million purchase tag. There was non-compliance in terms of the procurement of the consultant. What information did the HEA have? Three options were given in the first instance but the Dunnes Stores site was not one of those. Approval was sought from the authority. What documentation did the it require to approve the funding? What funding did it approve?