The Department of Education may ask University College Dublin to repay unauthorised allowances of up to €1.6 million made to senior staff, the Public Accounts Committee heard today.
The allowances were paid over a 10-year period without the approval of the Higher Education Authority despite legislation which stipulates approval must be sought.
There was a major conflict of evidence between the head of the authority, chief executive Tom Boland and Hugh Brady, president of the university, on whether UCD knew they were not allowed make extra payments to senior staff.
When pressed on why the authority had not put more pressure on UCD, Mr Boland asked: "What part of no does UCD not understand?"
UCD paid out almost €1.6 million in unauthorised allowances to staff over a 10-year period. A further €266,000 was paid out in performance bonuses between 2005 and 2008 shared between 12 people.
Dr Hugh Brady, president of UCD said the payments had "a long history" and were made for substantial added management duties similar to the payments made to principals in primary and secondary schools. They were also the norm internationally, he said.
Details of all the allowances were disclosed going back to 1999 and "approval was a mere formality" until 2007. When the issue was raised, he phased them out, but could not do so instantly because of contractual duties. The matter was finally resolved in March 2009.
"We weren't told to stop," Dr Brady said.
Mr Boland quoted from a letter to UCD in 2006 which said paying the allowances was contrary to legislation and outside the powers of the university. Kevin McCarthy, assistant secretary at the Department of Education and Skills said he agreed with the authority. At all stages it was clear that all forms of payments were subject to sanction, he said.
Fianna Fail Deputy Michael McGrath said there was clearly a conflict of evidence between the authority and UCD.
Labour Party Deputy Roisin Shortall asked why the situation had drifted for so long. Had everyone been too polite and had the authority taken a "softly, softly" approach, she asked.
