The University of Limerick (UL) has been accused by a Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) member of conducting an “arse-covering exercise” in relation to its response to a controversial purchase of a former Dunnes Stores site in Limerick City centre in 2019.
At a meeting of the committee on Thursday, Independent TD Verona Murphy said the responses of senior university officials to specific questions were not satisfactory. The Wexford TD said the officials, led by university president Prof Kerstin Mey, were not adequately answering direct questions.
She asked Prof Mey if UL would release an internal report about governance and appointments, about recruitment protocols, and if the university had used media consultants to prepare for Thursday’s hearing.
Several members of the committee also complained that the officials from the university were not answering questions directly about the matter but resorting to general statements during the hearing.
Ms Murphy asked Prof Mey several times if the university had specifically employed media consultants for the appearance of its delegation. Prof Mey did not specifically confirm whether it had, but said it did work with consultants this month.
“All I am seeing here is an arse-covering exercise,” said Ms Murphy.
The committee, chaired by Brian Stanley of Sinn Féin, has been continuing its engagement with UL over its purchase of a former Dunnes Stores site in the city centre for €8 million in 2019.
The university had already advanced plans to establish a city centre campus on the nearby Opera site and had carried out extensive preliminary work, including commissioning consultants. On April 2nd, 2019, it applied to the Higher Education Authority seeking funding, and submitting detailed plans for its development.
However, three days later, on April 5th, a proposal to buy the Dunnes Stores site for €8 million was added to the agenda of a meeting of the university’s governing authority under the “any other business” heading. None of the ordinary members of the authority had any notice the sale was to go ahead.
A two-page proposal was distributed, with references to valuation papers having been tabled during negotiations. The governing body unanimously backed the purchase of the site for €8 million. Mr Stanley portrayed the contents of the proposal as “cock and bull” at the meeting.
It subsequently emerged that there was no written valuation completed, as claimed in the proposal, and there was no record of any valuation in the records of UL.
The valuation of €8 million was defended by university staff at the meeting on Thursday but was challenged by committee members, including Sinn Féin TD John Brady, who pointed out that a valuation conducted by Limerick City and County Council had valued the site at €3 million. But university officials argued that that valuation was not a commercial one, rather a desktop valuation conducted with a view to designating the site on the register of derelict property.
When it emerged that no written valuation occurred, and a protected disclosure was made by a whistleblower, the university commissioned a report from KPMG into the Dunnes Stores site and governance issues surrounding it.
Prof Mey said that because a legal case was ongoing, involving a former employee, only six people had seen the report and it was not in a position to publish it. PAC members have had sight of the report. She also said that the key recommendations of the KPMG report have been implemented in full and all the governance and process safeguards are now in place.
Paul McAuliffe (Fianna Fáil) asked the university president if the figure paid to Dunnes Stores was above or below market value but, after protracted and terse exchanges, which Mr Stanley described as “very frustrating” for his colleague, the university was not in a position to produce a specific figure.
Prof Mey, who became president some time after the controversial sale, said it was “a very difficult question to answer as none of us were involved in the negotiations”.
Director of human resources Bobby O’Connor said Dunnes Stores had sought €11 million for the site but had been paid €8 million. He said the €3.5 million valuation was not relevant in the context of market value.
Imelda Munster of Sinn Féin directed her questions to asbestos damage discovered subsequent to the sale, which added to the cost. She said the whole process had been a “total disgrace” and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.
“It would have been avoided if a competent independent valuation of the site had been conducted.”
Catherine Murphy (Social Democrats) also raised the issue of asbestos and queried why no structural or engineering reports had been conducted.
Prof Mey said the governing authority had acted on the information available at the time in good faith.
Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Green Party) said that it had been an “extraordinary meeting”, especially in the responses of the delegation to the questions of the PAC members.
“We started about culture change and transparency and I am not sure we have seen it,” he said.
