Key report into University of Limerick finances blocked by legal threat
Limerick President Picture: sean University Of Mey Media / Kerstin Curtin True
University of Limerick’s (UL) appearance before the Public Accounts Committee to explain its finances looks set to be delayed after a legal objection was lodged against a report into the institution.
The PAC was recently informed by university president Kerstin Mey that a legal threat of “interlocutory action” had been made by a key individual named in the report conducted by consultants KPMG.
The firm was retained last June to investigate the circumstances that saw the university acquire the Dunnes Stores site on Sarsfield’s Bridge in Limerick City for €8m in 2019, despite the same site being valued at just €3m in 2017.
Subsequent to the purchase of the site, it emerged that no independent valuation had been sought prior to the transaction.
PAC vice-chair and Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy has now said that it was “very hard to see how we can proceed meaningfully” given the KPMG report has been delayed.
“We had been waiting until this report was available,” Ms Murphy said. “It was going to be a critical piece for us.
Prof Mey told the PAC the report had been received by the university and “circulated to the key individuals named in the report”.
She added: “The university subsequently received legal correspondence from one of the individuals seeking the report to be withdrawn and not circulated with a threat of interlocutory action.”
An interlocutory action in these circumstances would see the report temporarily suppressed under injunction.
Prof Mey said her institution was in the process of seeking a view on the matter from KPMG and that the current position of UL’s legal advisers is that they should not circulate the report “until the content of the letter is reviewed and responded to”.
The PAC had hoped to have UL before it in the coming months, but a date in April was scuppered when it became clear that Prof Mey and the university’s chancellor, former tánaiste Mary Harney, would not be available to answer questions on the same date.
Separately, Prof Mey acknowledged to the PAC that the terms of reference for the KPMG report had been drafted by UL itself.
“The HR director issued a draft terms of reference to the independent chair of the audit and risk committee for review,” she said, adding that the feedback provided to those draft terms had led to the final terms being issued to KPMG.
A UL spokesperson said it had “no further update at this time” following the correspondence received by PAC.
Last week, the Department of Higher and Further Education said that its position regarding the nearly €1.7m in capital funding it had withheld from UL due to the institution’s governance issues remained “under consideration”.
A spokesperson for the department said the release of the capital funding required “certain assurances” from UL in relation to its capital management procedures.