Retiring professors’ ‘crocks of gold’ payoffs slammed

The chief executive of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises association yesterday hit out at what he described as the ‘crocks of gold’ received by retiring university dons.

Mark Fielding’s comments came as figures showed a select group of staff — 22 in all — at Ireland’s universities received lump sum pension payoffs of over €200,000 over the past two years.

However, the representative body for university academics yesterday hit back at what it called Isme’s ‘begrudgery’.