IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said that IFUT wanted complete transparency in the payment of allowances and was critical of those allowances which were not directly linked to the performance of extra duties. However, he was clear that with regard to those “legitimate” allowances that were paid to staff for taking on additional workloads, IFUT members would not be performing such role if they were not paid the allowance.

The full article from Industrial Relations News (Issue 30, 27 August 2009) is available here.

“Professor Tom Begley … argues for very high salaries for certain academics because that is what it takes to attract the world class. It would be a mistake to allow this viewpoint to take root in Ireland’s university sector.

“Professor Begley fails to understand that Irish universities are funded from the public purse – funding which has never been adequate. Our education system cannot afford these hugely expensive individuals – they would reduce the size of the pot for everyone else and diminish the range of activities and services we can offer. There is no evidence that these people are worth the extra money and, if they are so focused on their earning capacity, their lack of a public service ethos does nothing to reassure that they will serve the education system better.”

The President’s letter is available in full here. The version that was published in The Irish Times on 23 September is available in full here.

In his reply to Professor Tom Begley’s article, “Paying for a knowledge economy”, in The Irish Times on 19 September, the General Secretary, Mike Jennings, writes:

“What the Irish Federation of University Teachers found to be “truly shocking” was not that university staff can make a good case for high salaries (unlikely, don’t you think?). No, what they objected to was the secrecy and selectivity which attended the award of exceptionally high pay to a few chosen people (many of whom, in a further challenge to Professor Begley’s thesis, are not academics or researchers at all).”

The full text of the General Secretary’s letter is available here.

“Minister Bat O´Keeffe is right to raise the issue of how universities spend the public’s money. Without doubt, universities should get value for money and spending decisions should be taken in an open and transparent manner. This union has questioned the wisdom of some recent spending decisions and it is good to see that the Minister now appears to agree with us. There is so little money in the sector that it is important that is well spent.

“It would not be correct, however, to allow any suggestion to take hold that the funding crisis within the universities is of their own making, arising from bad spending policies. This could easily be used to justify the persistent and perennial cutting of core funding to the universities: a practice which sees funding per student fall in real terms each year.

“The central and basic message has to be that universities do not get enough money to undertake their core mission. We do not need any more reports to make that point. There is no need for further reviews. What is needed is a simple, straightforward reversal of the cuts in parallel with the development of a sustainable funding model, with appropriate spending oversight, for the future.”

The President’s letter is available in full here.

Earlier this year, IFUT, using the Freedom of Information Act, exposed the secret salary levels paid to certain senior personnel in UCD. Now, by further use of the FOI Act, IFUT has established that there are small numbers of similar secret pay arrangements in all of the other six universities.

“The HEA has provided us with the names of all of those who have been awarded exceptionally high levels of pay”, said Mike Jennings, General Secretary of IFUT. “However, despite the fact that all of these salaries are paid from public funds, the HEA is stubbornly refusing to reveal the money amounts involved”.

The IFUT Press Release may be read in full here. The full list of the names of staff in receipt of the exceptionally high salaries is available here (IFUT members only).