In this paper the authors report on a qualitative investigation into service mathematics carried out in Irish universities against a backdrop of major concerns nationally and internationally embodied in the so-called "Mathematics problem". The enquiry involved a close inspection of how service mathematics is perceived, planned, delivered, evaluated, assessed and experienced by both lecturers and students in selected service mathematics courses in all seven Irish universities. Murphy (2002) used Brousseau?s concept of didactical contract to uncover the implicit contract present in Irish second level classrooms. The authors emulated this work to discover the hidden learning contract in university service mathematics lectures in Ireland. Major outcomes of the study include insight into the nature of the didactical contract at work in the service mathematics courses surveyed, and the development of a preliminary characterisation of service mathematics in Irish universities. Service mathematics is also an issue for adult mathematics education and impacts on it.