Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In other words, the university is telling us that IMI has done a Clerys job. It has taken all the assets out of the company and left the name. That is actually what the witnesses are telling me. The Irish Management Institute has done what I would call "a Clerys job" here. The wealth and assets of the organisation were taken to one side and the company was just a name. It is just like Clerys. Do the witnesses get the point I am making? I do not want them to comment on Clerys. We are making a comment. It seems to be that sort of issue of taking the assets out of the company and just leaving the company. Hence, Mr. Collins can say UCC bought the company for nothing because there was nothing to buy there besides the name. That was disconcerting to everybody watching. They could not rationalise what was being said because UCC knew the hairs it was splitting and did not make that clear. We have a better understanding of this idea that UCC says the IMI cost the taxpayer nothing. Of course the company cost nothing because there was nothing there. However, somebody had to raise a loan.

I come back then to the situation of the public funding. We are told UCC is down to 47% of income coming from public sources. Is that according to the most recent figures? It is generally in that bracket. The last figures available, which I have just seen on the website as the meeting was progressing, are from the 2014 accounts. I just Googled it and I did not see the 2015 accounts. It is just for example because the witnesses came in to discuss the 2014 accounts.