View from the centre

Presentation to

Irish Universities Association

12th Annual HR Conference

4 October 2013

Some questions

• A view from a centre?

•Who are we?

• How did we get here?

•Where do we go next?

Where’s the centre?

• The authorising environment

• Confers legitimacy

• Provides resources

• Expresses expectations

• Requires accountability

Where’s the centre?

We all have to account to someone……..

……..and that’s just as well

Where’s the centre?

• So our centre isn’t really the centre

• It’s our corner of the authorising environment

• Or maybe just our ivory tower

Who are we?

• The dead hand of bureaucracy?

Who are we?

• Or agents of the people?

How did we get here?

•Crunch, crash and crisis

•Decision point for Government

• Internal or external devaluationoAll else followed from that

How did we get here?

•Complete reliance on Troika

•Complete commitment to Stability Programme

•Close deficit; cut spending

How did we get here?

•Deficit closed significantly

•But further adjustments still needed

•To restore economic sovereignty

How did we get here?

How did we get here?

Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus

- Aneurin Bevan, 1952

How did we get here?

•Not random or arbitrary

• Part of a clear strategy

•Theory E over Theory O

•Directive over participative

Participative?

Directive?

Where do we go next?

•A regulator

•A service

•Co-operation and compliance

Where do we go next?

Differing short term and

long term perspectives

Where do we go next?

Theory E and regulation to manage financial crisis

Where do we go next?

Theory O and service to maintain and develop educational provision

Where do we go next?

• A willingness to listen

• An obligation to oversee

• Compliance with the law our red line

The challenge

How do we – together – ensure that regulation a measure of last resort?