University of Limerick staff have 'lost confidence' in president Kerstin Mey, union says
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The union representing staff at the University of Limerick has said it has lost confidence in the institution’s president after it emerged UL had bought 20 houses in a local development for €5m more than they were worth.
University president Kerstin Mey wrote to staff on Friday and said independent valuations had confirmed the university paid "significantly above market price" for properties in Rhebogue near the university.
In a letter sent to students and staff, she said: "This is an issue of major concern for the university in terms of management, governance and reputation."
Unite, the sole union at UL representing just under 50% of its 2,000 employees, wrote to the university’s chancellor Brigid Laffan on Monday saying the manner in which the overpayment was communicated to staff last Friday had “outraged” its membership.
The letter, penned by Unite’s UL convenor Eoin Devereux, noted the university’s president Kerstin Mey had written to staff late on Friday to say the overpayment was a “matter of regret” for her and the money would have to be declared as an impairment charge, but she had declined to identify those responsible for the purchase of the 20 houses at Rhebogue.
That same transaction has also brought UL into conflict with the local authority, which claims the houses never received the appropriate planning permission for their use as student residences.
“Her email is particularly striking as to its vagueness as to who is responsible for the decisions made around this purchase,” Mr Devereux wrote on Monday, adding the Rhebogue overpayment, combined with the purchase of the old Dunnes Stores building in Limerick city by UL in 2019 for €3m more than it was worth, brings the losses on just two property transaction to “more than €8m”.
“This is a shameful waste of scarce resources which might have been used to better our university and the student experience,” Mr Devereux said.
He said Unite’s members “no longer have any confidence in President Kerstin Mey” and said the “ways in which the University of Limerick is [sic] managed needs to be radically overhauled”.
Professor Mey has been president of UL since taking over from Des Fitzgerald in September 2020.
Unite last week distributed the results of a comprehensive cultural audit of UL to its membership, with Mr Devereux describing the mood among members regarding the results, which displayed overwhelmingly negative feelings towards the institution’s executive, as ”one of despair and sadness as to the direction” the university was taking.
A spokesperson for UL said its executive “is aware of the Unite survey and will be engaging directly with them on it”.
“University of Limerick has conducted extensive cross campus consultations in recent years and has established a culture and engagement working group which is tasked with developing new and existing processes and structures to help enable a positive organisational culture to thrive within UL,” they said.
A full cultural audit of UL was commissioned by the previous governing authority in 2021. However, the results of this were never published before the authority lapsed last September.