UL student union overspent budget by €1.6m in three years

UL itself remains under intense scrutiny from the Higher Education Authority, which has frozen the university’s capital programme funding since 2024 on the back of a series of financial scandals

The president of the union sits on UL’s Governing Authority, and has a standing remit to update the authority at each of its meetings. File picture: True Media

The student union of the University of Limerick overspent its budget by almost €1.6m in just three years, as questions emerge once more about the standards of financial governance at the institution.

The two companies comprising Student Life — the student union’s rebranded name since 2018 — ran a total cash deficit of €1.59m between 2023 and 2025, despite receiving overall income of €1.8m in 2024 alone.