Professor Declan McGonagle:

I thank Deputy Perry for the opportunity to advertise the college. The figure of 82% relates to payroll and pensions. We have 128 full-time equivalent staff and 102 pensioners. This is an unusual proportion in terms of where our resources must go before we spend a penny on students' education. That is the other percentage to which the Deputy referred. We have increased our undergraduate student numbers from 780 to 1,033, representing a 33% increase. We have increased our first year intake by approximately 40% in the past two years. We are responding to the review processes that took place between 2009 and 2012 or 2013 by transitioning the college to a new level of academic and learning activity. One feature of this was the instigation of a development process in 2011 and 2012. The increased commercialisation opportunities that resulted from this has, in the past year, spun out two small companies for the first time in the college's history, which the Deputy referenced. A further embryonic company is emerging in an incubator unit that we have developed.

The college has been in a transformative mode for several years. This is what I meant by our focus being on delivery. One thousand students walk through our archway every day and expect to have access to staff. We have 15% fewer staff members than we did in 2009. People will refer to the fact that the sector has been badly cut back, but our calculations provide an interesting statistic on this point. The cost to the State of a student attending NCAD in 2015 is between 35% and 40% of what it was in 2008.