Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The universities are obliged in their accounting to recognise the liability for pensions that have accrued to staff of the universities and retired individuals. In order not to have a huge deficit on their balance sheet, they recognise a matching asset, which effectively is saying that in the future we will receive funding from the Exchequer equivalent to the amount of our liability so that we will be in a position to pay the amount. This is what we are drawing attention to. They are making an assumption that they will receive funding to cover those liabilities.