Cash-strapped colleges spent more than €4m on staff flights
'At a time when the system is falling apart, travelling business class isn't helpful'
HARD-UP universities spent more than €4.3m on flights for staff and visiting academics last year, the Irish Independent has learned.
The massive splurge is set to spark controversy with hundreds of third-level staff losing their jobs following savage cuts in education funding.
One university, UCD, spent over a third of its €995,000 flights bill on 157 business-class trips.
It was one of six leading academic institutions which racked up the €4.3m flights bill between January and December last year.
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information rules revealed UCC topped the spending league, with €1.28m spent on flights last year.
UCD came second, while Trinity College came third with €848,000 spent on flights last year. NUI Galway spent €550,000 on flights, DCU spent €504,000, while the University of Limerick spent €161,000.
Most of the flights were to attend conferences, work with academics abroad on joint research projects or promote the individual institutions in other ways. The extent of the spending was criticised last night by the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT).
IFUT general secretary Mike Jennings said travel was essential, but admitted the amounts involved "surprised" him. He also said he believed the use of business-class flights by some institutions was excessive.
"At a time when the system is almost falling apart for want of funding, travelling business class is hardly helpful for collegiality among colleagues," he said.
But the Higher Education Authority, which funds the colleges on behalf of the taxpayers, defended the spending, saying academics had to travel to work with colleagues abroad and to ensure the quality of the awards for Irish students.
"In the context of expenditure on universities of €1.4bn the amounts involved are very small," said a spokesman.
The universities have about 80,000 full-time undergraduate and post-graduate students and almost 10,000 staff.
But cuts have forced a 6pc reduction in staff numbers at a time of rising enrolment.
Records obtained by the Irish Independent also show it is widespread practice by many staff not to use their university's designated travel agents, opting to book the flights themselves.
This practice has been criticised in the past by Comptroller and Auditor General.
Over half of UCC's flight costs related to trips booked by staff members, who later claimed back the cost from the university. UCD paid for 1,619 trips abroad through its own travel agent. Some 157 of these, at a cost of €366,000, were business class flights.
Exceptional
A UCD spokesman said that nine out of every 10 flights were economy class. "Business-class travel should only be used in certain exceptional cases provided it has been pre-approved in writing detailing the justification for use of business class, the cost compared with an economy ticket, the events/meetings scheduled and the length of visit. Requests to travel business class will not normally be allowed for flights of less than six hours," he said.
In comparison, only 37 of the 1,705 flights booked through Trinity College's travel agent were business class. The 37 flights cost €109,412 or just under €3,000 each.
However, neither UCD nor Trinity was able to say how many flights had been booked by individual staff members and later claimed back.
In a statement, Trinity said the travel was undertaken by staff to attend conferences and seminars, collaborate with other educational institutions, and carry out specific research.
It said business-class fares were paid for flights over eight hours and had to be approved by a head of school.
In a statement, UCC said its spending reflected the engagement of its staff in Europe and farther afield. NUI Galway said many of its leading researchers were engaged in international research projects which require attendance at academic conferences, meetings with funding bodies and other research partners based all over the world.
- Shane Phelan and John Walshe
Irish Independent
