Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide, in tabular form, the amount of money spent on external legal fees divided between human resources and other issues since 2000, broken down by Institute of Technology and by year. [13538/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The information sought is not readily available in my Department. Officials of my Department have asked the Higher Education Authority to contact the Institutes of Technology seeking details and I will forward the available information to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the fact that IT Tallaght has spent €3.5 million from non Exchequer resources as part of the preparatory phase of a major capital work which his Department included in its commitments under the public capital programme but which has subsequently not been funded; his views on whether it fair that the institute has to carry such a deficit and if he is proposing to take any remedial action to assist the Institute. [13539/13]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the equity of IT Tallaght losing €3.5 million from student, non Exchequer resources due to the failure of the State to provide promised capital funding; and if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this has significant implications for an institute. [13540/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 59 and 60 together.

My Department provided funding of over €1.3m to IT Tallaght to contribute towards the costs that it incurred towards necessary enabling external infrastructure works required at the Institute as a prerequisite to the delivery of 3 Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects that were in planning for the Institute. As a result of a requirement to prioritise capital resources in the current difficult fiscal environment, a decision was taken in November 2011 that higher education projects that had not been contractually committed at that stage, including these PPP projects, would not be progressed. However, the nature of the site enabling works undertaken enhances the overall quality of the external environment and will benefit the Institute in the long term.