Professor Shane Kilcommins:

Building on what my colleague said, the first thing to say around this context is that the Deputy is absolutely right. Deloitte had 35 recommendations. These are around additional controls and include the two recommendations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General. A series of other recommendations are being made by Mazars in terms of culture. Additionally, what is going to be really important is that it will not be appropriate for the university to offer assurances in future. There will be a need for independent verification. This is one of the things we have been working closely with the HEA on. It is about mapping those through. This is the beginning point in terms of those recommendations being an anchor point from which we can reset the university to ensure there is a much better standard of governance and management.

To reassure the Deputy as well, to some extent that process has already commenced and it has commenced through a reset of the executive. Some of the people, and the Chair and some of the other members will be aware of this point, who were raising concerns from the outset are now part of the executive team and are contributing in this context. The university itself, through the strategic governance committee, has been bringing issues to light and bringing forward its own recommendations. This includes, and this was an issue raised in this committee previously, the lack of a valuation. It was the strategic governance committee of the university that brought that in and is providing an evidence-based way in which we can go forward. We have a valuation and a whole series of recommendations from that committee too. The committee is composed of a group of colleagues, including from the professoriate in the college and people from across a variety of different units, such as quality, buildings and estates and finance, working together to try to put recommendations in place that will move us in the direction of good governance.