The Competition Authority has confirmed it is monitoring plans by universities here to draw up an agreement to prohibit the "poaching" of key staff.
As UCD president Hugh Brady yesterday outlined his reluctance to sign up to such an agreement, a spokesman for the authority said it would have concerns about "any agreement that might be anti-competitive".
The spokesman refused to discuss the specifics of a letter which it sent to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) at the start of the summer outlining its interest in the matter.
However, the HEA, which earlier this year wrote to all seven of the Republic's universities asking for their suggestions on how an agreed code governing the area might work, yesterday stressed that it would not support any agreement between university heads which was deemed to be anti-competitive.
HEA chief executive Tom Boland said it would be keeping the authority appraised of any developments.
"If the HEA had any concerns in relation to the anti-competitive nature of any agreement, the Competition Authority would be the obvious area from which to seek advice," Mr Boland said.
He added that he had every expectation and confidence that the heads of all seven Irish universities would find a solution to the matter when they meet in the coming weeks.
Yesterday, The Irish Times revealed that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for Education Mary Hanafin had intervened in a row in which the UCD president stands accused of "poaching" talented personnel from other universities.
Dr Brady has been reluctant to sign up to a draft agreement which specifically prohibits the poaching of key staff. Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday he denied that UCD is "poaching staff" and said academic mobility is important if Ireland is to compete internationally.
However, some sources in the third-level sector yesterday speculated that if there is a failure to agree a protocol governing the area, then the other six universities may choose to "go it alone".
They also pointed out that this could lead to increased collaboration between the universities in question, to the exclusion of UCD, at a time when significant Government funding is due to be allocated, as part of the €300 million Strategic Innovation Fund,specifically for collaboration between universities.
However, others underlined that any agreement which did not include UCD would struggle to address the overall problem of "poaching". Similarly, it is understood that UCD is anxious to reach agreement on the issue, broadly based on a recent European charter on research and mobility.