Galway Bay fm newsroom - A staff member at NUI Galway was paid 90 thousand euro while absent on grounds that did not meet the university's own rules for payments for sabbatical leave.
The details were presented along with the college's financial statements for the year to the end of last September.
The person who received the 90 thousand euro while absent from the college is one of an unknown number of people with whom NUIG concluded employment-related settlements.
According to today's Irish Examiner, the settlements cost NUI Galway 134 thousand euro, including severances.
In a report to the Oireachtas which accompanied the financial statements, Comptroller and Auditor General, Seamus McCarthy says the financial statements don't include a 91 thousand euro payment to a staff member for non-attendance, described as sabbatical leave.
This was immediately prior to a severance payment.
No other detail about the payment to the absent employee are provided but Seamus McCarthy says the circumstances of the case were not in line with conditions of NUIG's sabbatical leave payments scheme.
Sabbatical leave and associated pay arrangements in all publicly-funded third-level colleges are reviewed by the Higher Education Authority.
