UL president takes sick leave as governing authority met to discuss report on €5.2m housing overpayment

University of Limerick chancellor Brigid Laffan has temporarily handed over the running of the institution to UL president Kerstin Mey’s deputy after she took sick leave amid turmoil over a botched student housing scheme.

Prof Laffan told staff and students on Thursday that the deputy president and provost Shane Kilcommins is “carrying out the business of the university” at executive level as it confronts fallout from a deal in which it overpaid €5.2 million for 20 homes.

Prof Kilcommins is understood to have assumed executive leadership duties for a fortnight after Prof Mey sent a sick note.

Prof Mey has also signalled she cannot attend an April meeting of the Dáil public accounts committee, drawing comparisons with RTÉ figures who failed to appear at the PAC.

Her leave began as UL received a report on the deal from Niamh O’Donoghue, former chief of the Department of Social Protection, which is said to have reached “damning” conclusions.

The UL governing authority met for several hours on Thursday to discuss its response to the report, saying afterwards that certain personnel should have the opportunity to make written observations on the findings.

[ University of Limerick faces threat to funding after botched housing project ]

“It is a matter of significant regret that we find ourselves in this very difficult situation,” Prof Laffan said in a statement.

“This is a critical matter for me and for the governing authority as a whole. It is essential that the facts are established, that measures are taken to ensure that something like this never happens again, and that there is accountability.”

The authority also discussed demands from the Higher Education Authority, State supervisor of the third level sector, for another review of the deal and UL’s “general culture and governance”.

The HEA declined to comment publicly, but said it had issued a “statutory request” for a new review. Such requests can be made if the HEA finds there are “significant concerns” about an institution’s governance or performance.

The HEA manoeuvre is seen as the “first step” in a series of regulatory actions to impose pressure on UL to deal decisively with the breakdown in financial controls.

The UL governing authority said it was “engaging closely and regularly with the HEA to confirm the terms of reference for this review which are expected to be finalised shortly”.

Amid mounting uncertainty over Prof Mey’s future, her leave commenced in the week after 10 of the 13 members of the UL’s executive committee issued a letter calling on her to consider her position. Prof Kilcommins was one of the signatories. Prof Mey, herself a member of the committee, has made no comment on the letter.

Prof Laffan told UL staff and students she was “very disappointed” to learn of the housing overspend, which emerged only at her second governing authority meeting after she took office in November.

[ Analysis: Why University of Limerick could face intervention by education authority ]

UL paid more than €11 million for 20 homes at Rhebogue, 3km from the campus, but Prof Mey has acknowledged the university “paid significantly above market price” for reasons that remain unclear.

The bungled property deal is not UL’s first. The university was already set to take a €3 million charge in its 2022-2023 accounts after overspending five years ago on a former Dunnes Stores site in Limerick for a new campus.

Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley, the PAC chairman, said Prof Mey sent a “one-line” note saying she was incapacitated. “No further explanation or reasoning was offered,” Mr Stanley said, adding it was unacceptable to not attend without “plausible” reason. “This non-appearance does not mean that the questions will go away.”

He added: “It has been widely publicised that certain past members of the RTÉ board resigned and refused to come before the public accounts committee to answer questions on the various scandals and misuse of public monies there.”