External expert to audit WIT review

The Higher Education Authority is to appoint an international expert to validate an internal review of processes within Waterford Institute of Technology, following a request by the president of the college.

The request came on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday at which a number of concerns were raised about potential conflicts of interest around the development of a company that involved the current president of WIT, Prof Willie Donnelly, its intellectual property, and returns to the taxpayer when it was sold.

Questions from the PAC focused on how spin-out companies co-located within WIT were commercialised and in some cases sold off and what policies were in place within WIT.