Mr. Diarmuid Collins:

We supplied some supporting schedules and I hope they are available to the committee. Schedule 3, which is a transaction overview, sets out the transaction itself. It is included in the papers. It addresses in particular the points that the programme made and the points that we made at the last session here on 30 March. We purchased the IMI Sandyford campus, just over 13 acres. That was based on a professional valuation. The sum of €20 million was used. We advised the committee at the last meeting and subsequently in writing to follow up that it was funded via borrowings so again there was no public moneys involved. No Exchequer moneys were provided to UCC for us to acquire that asset.

The third bullet point is consistent with what we said previously, and there is supporting documentation in our papers under Schedule A confirming that. IMI, with that €20 million discharged two charges that were on that campus. The charges in effect were mortgages. The IMI had developed a residential aspect to its offering that had been supported and financed by AIB, so with an element of our €20 million proceeds with which we bought the campus the mortgage was released, discharged and paid back.

In 2012 – this is a key point – because when we looked to acquire the IMI previously the existence back then of a pension liability prevented us going ahead. We did not want to take on a pension liability of a private entity and we paused at that time. We continued with the alliance and revisited it when that was resolved. It was resolved in 2012. That is confirmed in the documentation attached in the accounts in the report we got from Mercer's pension expertise and in our due diligence with PwC. That charge was also paid with the €20 million from UCC.