Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 22 January 2015
Public Accounts Committee
Business of Committee
10:00 am
Mr. Seamus McCarthy:
FETAC no longer exists. It has been incorporated with a number of other awards bodies into a single body called Quality and Qualifications Authority of Ireland. When FETAC existed, it had a premises in the East Point Business Park which was rationalised when the amalgamation happened. As it had a lease that ran until 2017, FETAC was tied into the payment commitment. At the point where the bodies amalgamated, it sub-let the property but did not get the full value back. As such, under accounting standards, it was required to recognise at an earlier date the loss that will accrue over the four years to 2017 in its financial statements. This has resulted in the provision of €1.6 million in respect of the loss. FETAC had also made repairs and improvements to the property which it was depreciating over the life of the lease, but because it will no longer get the benefit of that, it must also accelerate the depreciation. That resulted in a further write-off of €750,000.