The Trinity Foundation saw an income of €6,090,369 in restricted funds for the Health Science (HS) faculty in the 2016/17 period, while the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS) faculty took in €2,537,896 in the same year. These incomes, known as restricted funds, are given for a specific purpose designated by the donor.
The faculty of Engineering, Maths, and Science (EMS) saw €565,742 received in restricted funding, almost six times less than what the HS faculty received, and over four times less than that of the AHSS faculty. The Trinity Foundation also funds “student support”, which received €1,841,579 in 2016/17.
EMS also started the year with the lowest funding levels, standing at €1,565,643. Despite the disparity between HS and EMS income last year, HS began the year with only around more €500,000 funding, at €2,030,341. The AHSS faculty began the year with the highest funding levels, amassing €4,248,500.
The Foundation also allocated funding to the various faculties. HS once again saw the highest levels of allocation, at €3,684,112. This was 18 times more funding than that which was allocated for EMS, which received €202,310. AHSS was allocated €839,727, with “student support” getting €1,488,311.
Despite the high income seen by the HS faculty, the AHSS faculty finished the year amassing the highest funding levels. The faculty, at the end of September 30, held €4,409,675. This was almost €1,500,000 above the HS faculty, and €4,000,000 above EMS. “Student support” also finished the year with €2,231,655. According to the financial report, the four faculties amassed a total fund of €14,517,074.
The 2015/16 year, also ending September 30, saw HS acquire the highest project income levels. However, AHSS began the period with the highest amassed funds, holding over €10 million. This was greater than the €2 million and €3 million figures held by the HS and EMS faculties respectively.
HS saw an income of €4.5 million during the period, which stood at nine times more than what was received by the EMS faculty. AHSS also saw over three times more income during the period, obtaining €1.6 million, in comparison to EMS’s €461,000.
The faculties also re-assigned project allocations during this period. The HS faculty saw €6,166 reassigned, with EMS and AHSS reassigning €434, and €33,250 respectively. The “student support” fund also reallocated a total of €5.
In past months, the Trinity Foundation has been attempting to recover funds lost through an email scam. Due to a cyber fraud perpetrated through fraudulent emails, the foundation lost €974,781. The loss to the foundation was funded by the commercial funds of the university, with additional costs including legal fees, and an external computer forensic team hired to establish what was the cause of the loss.
Trinity has since recovered €217,810 of the funds, at a cost of €184,000 to hire IT specialists to investigate the fraud. It was found that an unauthorised individual gained access to the email account of an employee and removed €790,741 from the Trinity Foundation accounts. College also spent more than €60,000 into an inquiry into the fraud, which included the consultancy firm BDO, who received €37,121.
