Results 12,861-12,880 of 26,610 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Paragraph 3.38 refers to the vice president for research and that refers to Mr. Donnelly, does it not? Yes. The paragraph reads: "Although the Vice President for Research was not included in the correspondence concerning the proposed change of terms, he [Mr. Donnelly] emailed the Secretary/Financial Controller, later on 29 November 2010, in support of the company's proposal for the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Mr. Donnelly is the vice president for research of the institute and a shareholder in the company and he emails the institute to say he is in favour of the reduction in equity of the institute.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Would Mr. Donnelly let me make my point? I will then ask for the opinions of others. Would Mr. Donnelly not see that as a blatant conflict of interest?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Sorry, I want to stop Mr. Donnelly there.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Mr. Donnelly does not need to finish.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: He does not. I agree that, in these situations, there are factors which could determine that decisions have to be made quickly. That is not in question.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: The question is whether Mr. Donnelly is the appropriate person to send an email as both vice president for research and a shareholder in the company to request that the equity be reduced. That is my concern.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: I thank Mr. Donnelly for that. I want Mr. McCarthy's professional opinion. Here we have a vice president of an institute for research who was also a shareholder in a company and, notwithstanding his declaration of a conflict of interest, as a shareholder of a company, he stood to gain financially if that company was sold. He then, as vice president, wrote to the financial controller...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Would Mr. Beausang see it as a conflict of interest, or at least something that should have been avoided? In other words, and notwithstanding everything that Mr. Donnelly said, it was not appropriate to lobby the institute or write to the institute when he had an interest in the company?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: I am asking for Mr. Beausang's opinion now.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Maybe Mr. Beausang will answer when he has finished his process. I do not need a process to give a short answer to that because it seems obvious to most people in the room. People can speak for themselves, but we will wait until Mr. Beausang can answer. Would Mr. O'Toole see that as a conflict of interest or at least something that could or should have been avoided?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: I have one more question, although I might come back in the second round of questioning. The intellectual property policy was developed in 2010 and it references the commercialisation committee but, in fact, it was a technology transfer office. It says that someone has a conflict of interest if they, or someone known to them, or somebody with whom they are in a business relationship, or...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Professor Donnelly does not-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: He did have. On the previous occasion he was before the committee he said he had a shareholding in a number of companies.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Are they all disposed of?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: I accept that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: I thank Professor Donnelly and the institute for accepting the recommendations in the report. I will not deal with this in detail but there was a great deal of public commentary about issues that were raised in this committee, which was unhelpful. Professor Donnelly might have a view on that. We focused on two areas: management of conflicts of interest and protecting the institute. In...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Enterprise Ireland said it had no role.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 104 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Waterford Institute of Technology - Development and Disposal of Intellectual Property in FeedHenry (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: That was the gross. The net was €900,000.