Alarm as taxpayer picks up €790m colleges’ pension bill

ALARM was raised last night as it emerged third-level institutions have dumped a €790m pension deficit on taxpayers.

The transfer of the liabilities to the National Treasury Management Agency provoked concern when it was revealed to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

PAC chairman Bernard Allen said the move was worrying.

“I am alarmed by the fact when these pension funds were running into deficit, some of the colleges involved topped up the pension rights of senior people retiring,” he said.

The PAC heard the transferred UCC pension scheme had assets of €312.1m and liabilities of €456m, while UCD had assets of €496.5m and liabilities of €598m.

The head of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) told the PAC he “could not guarantee” lecturers were not “swinging the lead”, but that new checks had been put in place to prevent it.

The question of how many hours lecturers work arose as the PAC discussed the case of engineering lecturer, Fergal O’Malley, who managed to work at the Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) while holding down another lecturing position in NUI Galway.

He double-jobbed for eight years until both colleges found out in late 2007 and forced him to resign.

The tutor managed to rake in €81,000 from Athlone and a further €65,000 from Galway – but he has been barred from claiming pensions from both colleges.

Fears were raised at the Dáil’s influential PAC over what level of control education chiefs had over lecturers and other staff.

The state’s financial watchdog the Comptroller and Auditor General expressed concern some public-private partnerships to build and run education facilities were not providing value for money to the taxpayer.

The PAC is also to recall HSE officials regarding the number of children who have died in state care over the past decade as committee member Sean Fleming expressed concern the TDs had been given wrong information in the past.