UCC pays €225k a year for staff mobile phones

Between 2020 and June of this year, University College Cork paid out a total of €748,678 in staff mobile phone bills, according to data released to The Echo under Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation.

Across the four full years from 2020, UCC paid an average of €224,577 each year for an annual average of 663 staff mobile bills.

In 2024, in the nine months from the beginning of the university’s financial year in October 2023, it has paid €94,709 for 679 staff phones.

According to the response to The Echo’s FOI request, approximately 20% of UCC staff are allowed paid mobile phones, “where it is a requirement of their post, [for example] where the post involves work-related travel”.

In 2020, 678 UCC staff had paid mobile phones, costing €243,678, while in 2021 it paid a bill of €198,257 for 645 staff phones.

The following year the same number of staff, 645, had paid mobiles and the bill came to €212,341.

Last year, the university paid €244,064 for 713 mobile bills, the highest amount UCC paid out over the five years covered in the FOI request.

In its request, The Echo asked for details of “all expenditure relating to mobile phones incurred by University College Cork over the past five years.

“The specific information being sought relates to the total expenditure on mobile phone bills incurred on behalf of UCC, as well as a detailed breakdown of who the users of the phones were, and how much each individual bill came to.”

Responding, UCC’s finance officer stated: “I have decided to part-grant your request.” They said expenditure on mobile phones is approved by “the relevant school or functional unit of the university, subject to UCC’s financial policies, procedures, and accounting processes”.

Pointing out that the average UCC staff mobile bill for 2024 so far is approximately €140 per user, including rental plus data, they added that “use of phones is fully compliant with procurement rules under the Irish Government’s Office of Government Procurement (OGP)”.

They added that they had “decided not to release the names of users of mobile phones, or to release details of individual bills, as I believe this would involve disclosure of personal information. Non-disclosure on these grounds is provided for under s37(1) of the FOI Act”.

In January of this year, publication of UCC’s 2022 to 2023 financial statement revealed that the university had identified an €11.2m deficit.

At the time, a UCC spokesperson said: “The Higher Education Authority (HEA) has been notified. UCC has initiated a plan to address the deficit. UCC and the HEA have agreed to review capital projects in the context of the current work plan.

“The fundamentals of UCC remain strong and the university is committed to returning to a surplus position,” they said.