Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Public Accounts Committee

Higher Education Authority: Financial Statements 2019

9:30 am

Dr. Alan Wall:

I thank the Deputy. I think he is referring to the pension control account which exists in Irish universities now and has the inflows and outflows. They were set up following central Government's taking over of the pension arrangements which were in five, in particular, of the seven universities. At the moment, those pension control accounts are in deficit, in other words they are paying out more than they are getting in, given that more and more people are retiring and there is a change in the structure there. We follow that very closely and we are working very hard with the sector. We have seen the figure there; it is quite large at more than €140 million and I know that is an issue. Clearly we have told our parent Department about it and we have also done projections showing how this will grow. I know it is an issue the Department is raising centrally with central Government so it is being watched and being monitored and is a live issue of discussion, as things stand at the moment.