Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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I wish the Minister of State a good morning and I thank him very much for appearing before us.

On the Estimates, there is the legal requirement identified relating to the pension fund for third-level institutions. The Minister of State referred to that as a one-off amount. If there is a legal requirement and why is that funding not coming then from central funds? That being said, one-off suggests that there was an issue. If there was an issue, was it a one-off? Could there be a shortfall in the future that would require another one-off figure to balance that particular pension book? On what basis is the pension fund held? Is it held centrally or is it an investment fund of some kind and what led to the shortfall?