Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Farrell very much for the question. As she will know, universities, including University College Cork, are autonomous bodies established under statute. All universities are required to comply with the relevant Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform guidelines, including, as appropriate, the public spending code and relevant circulars. As autonomous bodies, the expenditure of a university’s income, both public and private, is a matter for the individual institution and this includes responsibility for ensuring appropriate policies and procedures are in place to oversee the use of its resources. As the accountable person for the institution, the president of a university is accountable to the Oireachtas in respect of the expenditure of Exchequer funding and universities' financial statements are audited independently by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

As an autonomous body, it is a matter for UCC to prioritise its capital projects accordingly. There have been two rounds of capital funding made available to higher level institutions under the higher education strategic investment fund, HESIF, in recent years. Each institute was asked to submit one project per funding round under HESIF. UCC chose to lodge applications for its business school and for an upgrade to the Kane Building. I am pleased to say both applications have been successful and have received €50 million in direct Exchequer funding from this Department. That is where we are on that.

In addition and separately, the Higher Education Authority recently undertook an expressions of interest, EOI, process to identify options for developing substantial medium-term additional capacity in a range of priority healthcare disciplines, including dentistry. In June 2023 the Minister for Health and I announced details of the potential options identified under this process. I continue to engage closely on this matter with Government colleagues to advance the process, with investment to be considered in the context of the ongoing capital review of our national development plan allocations.

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