Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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One of the things it does is allow us to do what we are doing and what we are seeing at the moment. In the absence of the HEA Act, we would not have had a section 64 process in any higher education institutes. On that basis alone, it is a huge improvement. We have to have regard, as a Government, to the fact that while most of the HEIs derive the lion's share of their funding from the public purse, they are autonomous organisations. Oireachtas Members during the passage of the Act were keen to point out there should be no infringement on the separation between the autonomy of the HEIs and the role of Government. However, autonomy should not come at the expense of accountability. I flagged early that if the HEA, having reviewed what it is reviewing at the moment, feels there is a need to strengthen it and asks the Secretary General in the Department for increased powers, I would be open-minded to that. I think that would be positive.