Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One minute.

Deputy Bobby Aylward: I want to ask a question of the representatives from University of Limerick. At our last committee meeting I asked a question and I was not satisfied with the answer I got. Two professors were sent on a sabbatical - I think it was to Australia, I do not have the details in front of me - and it cost a lot of money. I asked a question about this. I was told that they went to do a degree course or something. It was extravagant money. Two people were released from their jobs in the university and sent to Australia, which was paid for by the University of Limerick. I thought this was the strangest arrangement I ever saw and with the costs involved, I thought it was jobs for the boys or money for the boys. Is it a normal arrangement in universities to send off two people, to pay for their costs, to cover all the costs and give them funding to get further education, in Australia of all places? There was not much further one could have sent them. Is that normal practice and is this still ongoing practice at the University of Limerick? Incidentally, the RTE programme did not take that too lightly when they showed that.