Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 6 April 2017
Public Accounts Committee
2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014
9:00 am
Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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On that point, as Professor Donnelly has mentioned the return on investment, can he send us a report on the actual investment from which, he is saying, we got this return? That would include costs incurred by Waterford IT, such as staffing and facilities, which are borne by the taxpayer. Professor Donnelly mentioned earlier that there was investment from Enterprise Ireland and probably from European funds. We have got no concept, as we speak, of how much the taxpayer invested in the process. When we know what the taxpayer put in, we can then begin to form an opinion of how well the taxpayer did. We have not completed the first step yet.
The fact that serious capital gains tax was paid proves to me that there was a substantial profit made by somebody. What we want is each step along the way. If Waterford IT started at a 12% shareholding, how many steps of dilution were there down to the small percentage and what external investment from the private sector resulted in each step of the reduction of the shareholding? Our guests must have that information somewhere. Is that feasible?