Dublin City University and Pat Crean's Marlet Group have agreed to split a €3.76m deposit equally that a Marlet Group subsidiary paid over to purchase a €37.6m site from DCU at Griffith Avenue in Dublin four years ago.
The Marlet Group did not proceed with the proposed purchase of the 9.6 acre site and DCU held onto the €3.76m deposit that Marlet Group subsidiary, Atlas Ltd Partnership had paid over.
In September 2021, Atlas then sued DCU in the Commercial Court seeking the return of the €3.76m deposit and in October this year, the two sides clashed over eight days at the Commercial Court where Mr Crean told the court that he had been "committed" to the €37.6m purchase.
However, DCU's 2022 annual report now reveals that both sides reached an out of court settlement after the eight days where the parties "reached an agreement to split the deposit equally and conclude the matter before the courts".
The note states that "the legal costs incurred during the proceedings directly by the University will be confirmed in due course".
Elsewhere, in an unrelated matter, the annual report discloses that DCU has paid a staff member who was under-investigation €500,000 in back-pay.
During the latter stages of the process, the staff member was not paid.
The report does not disclose the nature of the investigation but states that "in line with external legal advice and employment law, the staff member was subsequently required to be paid in accordance with their employment contract for the period previously unpaid".
The report states that the investigation and related statutory procedures had to be conducted over a period of years outside the control of the university, including during Covid-19 and the accumulated remuneration payable totalled €500,000.
The note states that the €500,000 was paid out by the university and after payroll taxes, the staff member received €200,000.
The note states that "the staff member is no longer employed by the university".
The payout has drawn the attention of the Comptroller and Auditor General, Seamus McCarthy who said in his accompanying report that the €500,000 payment was part of "a compromise agreement" with the staff member after DCU had taken legal advice.
The consolidated accounts for DCU and subsidiaries show that they recorded a pre-tax profit of €11m in the 12 months to the end of September 2022 as revenues increased by €35.49m or 14pc to €283.63m.
Underlining the university’s recovery from the business impact of Covid-19, the university’s income from 'residences’ last year almost tripled from €4.3m to €12.3m while catering revenues increased from €371,000 to €3.43m.
DCU President, Prof Daire Keogh last year received pay of €208,824 and total pay to key management personnel totalled €2.15m.
Numbers employed increased from 1,883 to 2,049 as staff costs last year increased from €177.55m to €181.7m.
Only one staff member earned in excess of €200,000 with one earning between €190,000 and €200,000. A further 57 earned between €150,000 and €170,000 with one staff member in the €170,000 to €180,000 earning bracket.
The accounts also disclose that a fraud took place in a DCU subsidiary in 2022 totalling €10,000 and the matter was reported to the Gardai and investigated by DCU.
At the end of September 2022, DCU had accumulated profits of €242.63m. The university’s cash reserves increased from €42.6m to €120m.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
