82. Section 37 of the Act of 1997 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following subsections for subsections (1) and (2):

“(1) An tÚdarás shall, on or before the 1st day of March in each year, notify the chief officer of the funding (in this section referred to as ‘allocated funding’) to be provided by An tÚdarás for that year to a university, from moneys provided to An tÚdarás under section 19 of the Higher Education Authority Act 2022.

(2) The chief officer shall, on or before the 1st day of April in each year, or such other date as An tÚdarás may approve, prepare and submit following approval by the governing authority, to An tÚdarás, in such form and manner as may from time to time be approved by An tÚdarás, a statement of the proposed expenditure and, other than allocated funding, the expected income of the university for that year.

(2A) The allocated funding and the expected income of the university referred to in subsection (2), shall be the budget of the university for that year.”,

(b) by the substitution of the following subsections for subsection (5) and (6):

“(5) Where the chief officer of a university is of opinion that—

(a) the actual expenditure in a year, or

(b) a proposed course of action,

will or is likely to result in expenditure in excess of the budget for that year after taking account of an increase (if any) in the allocated funding under subsection (4) (in this section referred to as a ‘material departure from the budget’), the chief officer shall so inform the governing authority and give reasons for his or her opinion.

(6) Where a governing authority, despite being so informed under subsection (5), decides—

(a) in the case of subsection (5)(a), not to decrease its actual expenditure, or

(b) in the case of subsection (5)(b), to proceed with its proposed course of action,

the chief officer, shall, unless he or she considers that contrary to his or her foregoing opinion a material departure from the budget will not occur, as soon as practicable, inform An tÚdarás of the decision of the governing authority.”,

and

(c) in subsection (7), by the substitution of “the next succeeding year” for “the next succeeding financial year”.