Dr. Joseph Ryan:

On the borrowing framework, the Deputy is absolutely correct. As I said earlier, in order to meet the ambitions of the new technological universities, there will have to be access to that borrowing. That facility is outlined in the Act but it is a question of triggering it. I would pick up on the very word Mr. Miley picked up on, that is, agility. When the Oireachtas was debating what is now the Technological Universities Act, both Deputies and Senators were very keen to ensure that the technological sector would not lose that agility, that connectedness it had. That was a key part of the debate.

On competency, I do not think it is as stark a difference as the Deputy suggested. I am not saying we should exclude anyone from this. I am conscious of the Chairman's injunction not to name names, but a leading provost of a European university has told me the key to the success of that university involved choosing the most competent people for its governing body, in whom everybody could have faith, rather than going down the route of a representative model, which tends, by its nature, to get larger and larger in any case. Where the competency comes from is not the point I am making but rather that there should be a competency.