Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes, this is a bit of a laugh. We have raised this issue with the universities and colleges numerous times. Professor O'Shea, at the end of his letter, states that the funding to support the annual €60,000 investment in Cork Opera House is sourced from the university's "own sources of income", for example, non-Exchequer income. If there is one issue that the committee nailed in its report on how money was being spent by universities and colleges, it was this mishmash whereby colleges argued that they could isolate income they received from other sources and use it for specific projects. If taxpayers' money was not being provided to the colleges in the first instance, they would not be in a position to generate non-Exchequer income. As such, the taxpayer is paying for the majority of this annual payment of €60,000.

Given that we discussed this practice in detail previously, I will not bore members by doing so again. However, this case is another example of the practice and it shows that UCC, my alma mater, has not learned from what took place in this committee. Regardless of whether this is a good investment, for University College Cork to maintain that the €60,000 it spends annually on Cork Opera House is from its own sources of income is an insult to the committee given what we decided on this matter. We should write to the university seeking a further explanation of this statement. This will be the third time we will have contacted the university.