PAC probes UCC salaries

UCC’s president said that he does not know what staff payments the Department of Education believes breach pay rules.

He was responding to the department’s claim to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that it has found unauthorised payments not previously notified. UCC was previously found to have made unauthorised payments worth more than €1.6m above approved salary levels, a practice in many universities which was the subject of past comptroller and auditor general and PAC probes.

Michael Murphy told the Irish Examiner he has never seen the €1.9m figure that was reported in the media yesterday as the total or overpayments at UCC, and does not know how it was derived. He said the university’ response to a letter from department secretary general Seán Ó Foghlú will tell him it is in compliance with requirements.