Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

In this audit and in earlier audits on education, the issue at stake is that the Minister was not consulted or asked to give his or her consent to the payments that were made. That is the key issue. For a period of nine years in a previous audit, the advice of the Higher Education Authority was not taken by UCD, UL or NUIG. The core of this issue is the lack of governance from the Department of Education and Skills over all of these bodies, even though they are ultimately accountable to the Minister. They refuse to be accountable. They do not listen to the HEA and they ignore the Minister. Is that not at the core of all this? If we are to have real transparency and accountability, then when the Minister says "No", then it should not happen.

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