Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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199. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to reports in the media of audits into third level institutions that have revealed a range of governance issues, including additional payments to staff and non-compliance with procurement rules; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31109/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The media reports referred to by the Deputy raised a number of issues that are being taken very seriously by my Department and the Higher Education Authority (HEA). 

During 2015, the HEA reviewed its approach to the oversight and governance of higher education institutions and built on existing governance and accountability infrastructure with improved and more transparent mechanisms. This included:

- more comprehensive annual governance reporting requirements,

- the introduction of signed financial memoranda between the HEA and HEIs setting out respective responsibilities,

- new guidelines on timeliness of reporting,

- regular reporting and liaison with the Office of the C&AG and

- a new accountability and risk mechanisms in place with the Department of Education and Skills.

This culminated in the establishment and communication of a new Governance Framework for the Higher Education System, which is available on the HEA website. The framework makes clear the current governance arrangements that are in place and clearly details the responsibilities of higher education institutions (HEIs) in this area.

In addition, a new programme of rolling reviews has been established to cover specific elements of governance. My Department agreed with the HEA that the first rolling review of governance compliance would be on procurement and this review was undertaken in 2016.

The HEA has also recently announced a rolling governance review of Intellectual Property policy implementation across HEIs.

These new measures complement the previous requirements that HEIs are required to observe, and in line with a desire to continually improve the governance and accountability structure in the sector, my Department and the HEA are considering whether any additional measures may be necessary to further strengthen governance in the future.