UNIVERSITIES ARE wasting money on “hugely expensive lawyers and barristers” even though resources are stretched to the limit across the system, the annual conference of university teachers has been told.
Mike Jennings, general secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), told the conference over the weekend that human resource departments in the colleges were well resourced but despite this, they were hiring legal experts at huge cost.
Mr Jennings said this represented a “disgraceful waste of public money at a time when resources are stretched to the limit in the entire university system”.
“Could anything be more galling and provocative than for IFUT members, whose core job of providing a first-class education is undermined and damaged every day by lack of investment, to be forced to witness the irresponsible use of resources lavished on legal fees?”
Mr Jennings said this “scandal” was occurring in HR departments whose staff growth rates had significantly outstripped that of all other departments in recent years.
Mr Jennings also condemned what he termed as “Government callousness” over the pension levy.
“Their response to a crisis, which was totally the result of private greed, is to punish, in a highly disproportionate way, workers in the public sector.”
IFUT president Dr Joe Brady strongly criticised the “failure” of Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe to involve or inform academics and his union regarding the current review of third-sector education.