Professor Brian MacCraith:

Absolutely, and I am quite happy to clarify. For example, cash in the bank for us at the moment would be €32 million but I can say straightaway that €16 million of that has come in in the past month from student fees. This will be spent. If I look through cash at hand and commitments, we would have a net debt position. If one takes one of the major investments of the State in terms of research for the universities – the programme for research in third level institutions – the actual payment out to universities, where we have already committed to build research centres, will be staggered over the coming years. The only way we can move forward is with these sorts of amount. To reinforce Deputy Donohoe's point, these are not surpluses but are fully committed.

We have met the NTMA to see if we are getting the best rates of interest for these. It clarified to us that it could not match what we are doing, which is with Bank of Ireland and AIB. For example, in the past year, we would have made just over €400,000 in interest which we used to balance the books for the university itself. If one took that away, it is another cut to the universities in terms of trying to balance their books and that is increasingly difficult for us.