Criticism as UL site purchase report not made available to university's governing authority 

That report had investigated the purchase by the university of the former Dunnes Stores site in Limerick City in April 2019, a sale which was approved by the then governing authority despite no formal valuation of the building being provided. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

The University of Limerick (UL) has been criticised for failing to make a controversial report regarding an €8.3m site acquisition available to its own governing authority.

At a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Thursday, representatives from the embattled university were informed that it is “absolutely incredible” that committee members had been allowed to inspect the KPMG report in question in a closed room, but those handling the governance of the institution had not.

The report investigated the purchase by the university of the former Dunnes Stores site in Limerick City in April 2019, a sale that was approved by the then governing authority despite no formal valuation of the building having been provided.

It subsequently emerged that the site had been valued at just €3m in 2017.

President of UL Kerstin Mey told Fianna Fáil’s James O’Connor that it is her “desire” to give the governing authority the report “as soon as we can”.

 “I am as frustrated as you are,” she said, adding that only six people, including herself, have to date viewed the report, while the only member of the governing authority to see it is now dead.

Mr O’Connor described the decision not to share the report with the authority as “astonishing”. “The harm you are doing by this course of action is incredibly damaging,” he said.

Court challenge

Ms Mey said the report cannot currently be shared as its contents are being challenged in the courts, in a case taken by former chief operating officer Gerry O’Brien, and that the “very robust” legal advice she has on the matter is that the report’s distribution must be “absolutely limited”.

She said that the university is “very aware” that the contents of the KPMG report are “affecting our reputation”, with UL corporate secretary John Kelly adding that the decision was taken not to publish the report as “there was likely to be litigation”.

“The chancellor (Mary Harney) was very clear she didn’t want to put UL at risk of litigation,” he said.

Chair of the committee Brian Stanley meanwhile described the fact the governing authority hasn’t seen the report as something that would not be seen on a local council committee discussing expenditure of €500, let alone €8.3m.

“The same body is now supposed to ensure good governance in the institution are now expected to make decisions ... having not seen the report?” he said. “It hasn’t even been made available in a room as it has to myself? I find that absolutely incredible,” he said.

The committee received clarification that the €8.3m purchase was only added to the ‘any other business’ section of the governing authority’s meeting held on April 5, 2019, the night before that meeting took place. Members of the authority had only been made aware of the sale that same day given the agenda distributed in advance of the meeting contained no such reference.

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UL had put together a 58-page proposal document for the purchase of the separate Opera site in Limerick city just three days prior to the governing authority meeting.

The officials present said that the €3m valuation of the Dunnes site in 2017 was not comparable to the final price paid as, despite being compiled by a professional valuer, the figure reached related to the building’s possible entry on the derelict site list.

Asked repeatedly by Fianna Fáil’s Paul McAuliffe whether or not she believed the university had paid above market price for the Dunnes site, Ms Mey did not directly answer, but said: “We paid money to acquire a strategic site and iconic site in the city centre and we have no regrets”.

Ms Mey first denied that a protected disclosure by a whistleblower had been made regarding the Dunnes purchase, but later acknowledged that such a “public disclosure” had been made and copied to the Higher Education Authority.

Earlier, during a private address to the committee, Ms Mey acknowledged that the KPMG report had had “significant consequences” for UL and had caused “understandable internal disquiet within our university community”.