Cianan Brennan: UL is its own worst enemy in a PR war

For the University of Limerick, amid an apparently endless saga of governance issues, sorry seems to be the hardest word

University of Limerick president Kerstin Mey. Picture: Sean Curtin True Media

To say it’s been a rough few years for the University of Limerick would be something of an understatement. Really, it’s been a harrowing decade or more.

The subject of countless whistleblower disclosures, external reports, and governance scandals, all everyone involved with the place wants, regardless of their viewpoint, is for a clean slate, a chance to move on from the madness of the past 10 years.

But in order to move on, you need to account for the past.

That is something that seems to have been somewhat lost on the president of the university, Kerstin Mey.

Prof Mey took over from Des Fitzgerald on an interim basis in September 2020 after the latter took early retirement citing health concerns regarding covid-19.

Kerstin Mey inherited a white elephant

She immediately inherited responsibility for a white elephant project which was signed up to towards the end of Mr Fitzgerald’s tenure in April 2019.

The purchase of the former Dunnes Stores building at Sarsfield Bridge in the city was completed with a view to constructing a city-centre campus for the university.

From the get-go, there were problems.

The decision to buy the building was made in the space of a couple of days after UL had been mulling a bid for the Opera site in the city for the same purpose for years.

The governing authority of the university, which itself was not briefed in advance regarding the transaction, ended up approving the purchase for €8.3m despite no formal valuation having taken place.

Then it emerged the site had been valued at €3m just two years before.

Infamous KPMG report

The whole farrago led to an infamous report being compiled by consultants KPMG, a report which has never seen the light of day due to an ongoing legal action by a former UL executive, while those who have seen it have only been allowed to do so under the tightest of security.

From there, Prof Mey’s stewardship of the university has been a little less than auspicious, not helped by her ill-fated appearances before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

By mid-2022 UL had €3.7m worth of vital capital funding, via two separate penalties, withheld by the Department of Higher and Further Education on the back of the various governance concerns surrounding the university.

That money was eventually released to the university in early 2023, the department having been assured that UL had gotten its house in order in governance terms.

Prof Mey's PAC appearance

In May 2023 the president appeared at the PAC in the wake of the funding being released and promptly, on what was supposed to be an announcement of UL’s return to the land of common sense, went through an utterly needlessly, torrid, three hours where she seemed to be incapable of giving even the simplest of questions a straight answer.

On one occasion, she was asked whether or not she had received media training ahead of the hearing no less than 23 times before finally replying in the affirmative.

On another, asked as to how UL’s director of human resources had been appointed to a vice presidential level role without a formal competition — a move which involved a significant salary hike — Prof Mey said that the university had “a range of policies available to it in the context of reassignment”.

A resignation and a U-turn

The fallout from that appearance appears to have been turmoil behind the scenes.

A week later, Prof Mey acknowledged that the criticism she had received over the hearing was “completely fair”.

A day later, all hell broke loose, with provost and deputy president of UL Shane Kilcommins apparently leaving his role for reasons unknown.

For a matter of hours only, however.

Further turmoil

Later that day, it emerged that Prof Kilcommins was to remain in his post and would co-chair a new governance committee with Prof Mey.

From there, surely it would be plain sailing for UL?

Alas no. When the time came last October to appoint a successor to former tánaiste Mary Harney as chancellor of the university, the nominee UL veteran Rose Hynes (who had also been endorsed by Prof Mey), was rejected following a vote by the new governing authority, an unprecedented occurrence.

While the role was eventually taken up by Brigid Laffan, something of a consensus candidate, Prof Mey described it as “an incredibly significant appointment for this institution”.

Latest developments

Which brings us to last week, when the president dropped a 1,000-word statement regarding a fresh valuation of the Dunnes Stores site which has caused so much hassle for her university.

This was a long-awaited statement, expected to form a mea culpa from UL, to acknowledge the folly of the transaction, and to promise not to do it again.

Instead, the massively complex message noted that the purchase had been “successful in meeting many of the selection criteria set out by UL” for a city centre campus, adding that it “presents an excellent development opportunity for the university”.

That’s a somewhat self-serving appraisal of the situation, given 500 words in the statement also notes the fresh valuation given to the site was €5.4m, just under €3m less than UL paid for it, and that the university must now note that overpayment as an impairment charge in its accounts.

We should perhaps not be surprised.

This is a president and an institution for whom sorry truly does seem to be the hardest word.