Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 30 March 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
UCC: Financial Statements 2013-2014

9:00 am

Mr. Diarmuid Collins:

In terms of the trust fund, we will be consolidating 2015 and 2016. It is already reflected in our accounts in a disclosure in note 31 and the interaction between the trust fund and the university is already on the body of the accounts themselves. As such, when the trust fund that is there to support students, scholarly activity, access and so forth provides income to pay for that, the income arrives into the university and is included in the university's overall banking position and accounts. The expenditure as a result of that income is also included in the university's accounts. What is not consolidated is the balance of the fund that is invested. That will be invested post the 2015-2016 accounts. FRS 102 allows us, in the construct of that reporting standard, to be a bit more expansive on the face of the balance sheet between reserves that are restricted and those which are unrestricted. Arguably, up until now, we would not have had that level of it. In the prescribed accounts we have today, unrestricted reserves would not be as visible in the accounts that are there post-FRS 102 consolidation. Our position is that once we have 2015 and 2016, which is up and running today, we will consolidate. It is not as if we have not reflected the trust funds today in the accounts. They are in note 31, which is a disclosure note showing the balance in the trust fund and the interactions themselves. The income and expenditure is in the accounts in any event.