Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

The Deputy will be pleased to know that we have been addressing that issue this year. We took part in a pensions working group that involved the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the pensions unit from the Department of Education and Skills, and also the higher education funding unit of the Department of Education and Skills. The Deputy is referring to a situation where, when the assets and liabilities of the closed schemes transferred across to the State, effectively the HEA, as a temporary and a prudent measure to ensure that funding remained to meet the ongoing pension liabilities, instructed institutions to set aside an amount for employer and employee contributions under the model scheme. This was the replacement scheme of the closed scheme which came into practice in 2009.

The Comptroller and Auditor General drew attention to the fact that effectively what we were doing in instructing institutions to do that was setting aside funding for one purpose, but actually using it against another purpose - the liabilities of the closed schemes. By working with the working group, we agreed that the HEA would instruct the institutions to basically net off the balances from the closed scheme and from the model schemes, and consolidate it effectively within a single pension control account.

We are also working with the Department of Education and Skills to increase the level of transparency on the ongoing pension costs for the sector. It is very important that we understand what those pension costs are and separate them from the cost of just keeping the show on the road as well. I believe we have resolved that situation and that will become apparent as we move to look at the 2016-17 accounts.