Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason UCD paid the Revenue Commissioners €400,000 in unpaid tax for Student Union staff without anyone being held to account and without any investigation into where the deducted tax has gone; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43119/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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As the Deputy will be aware, universities are autonomous institutions and my Department does not have any function in their day to day operational affairs, for which the Governing Bodies and the management staff of the institutions are responsible. However, in relation to this matter I understand that the payment to the Revenue Commissioners referred to by Deputy relates to an amount paid by the Student Union in UCD in respect of unpaid tax liabilities following a revenue audit of its tax liabilities from 2007 to 2011. The Students Union is a separate entity from UCD and it manages and runs its own affairs completely independently from UCD. Again, I understand that the Students Union has conducted its own investigation on this matter and UCD is also carrying out a financial and governance review on the records of the Students Union.