President should have a role in selection of top dons

WHEN Seán Haughey, Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, answered questions in the Dáil on its first day back after the summer recess, he put on record his “disappointment and disapproval of the unacceptable practice which existed in some universities of making additional payments to staff without the requisite sanction”.

This extensive and very costly power-play was discovered in 2005, but only ceased in April, 2009. The minister’s statement follows the publication of a far-reaching report on resource allocation in Irish universities by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Mr Haughey also cited, in the course of his observations, the Universities Act 1997 as conferring a considerable degree of institutional autonomy on the universities, whose salary costs alone exceed €1 billion per annum.