Ms Mary Harney:

That is an excellent question. From memory, in December 2018, the governing authority approved the procurement of what is called the "opera site". It was not an ideal site, but it was the only other site that was available. We approved that and then we made an application to the higher education strategic infrastructure fund. That application was only submitted a couple of days. When the president phoned me to put the matter of the Dunnes Stores site on the agenda for 5 April, among the reasons he used was the fact that we needed to change the site for the purposes of the HEA application, as well as the fact that he did not want Dunnes Stores to change their mind. That is why it went to that meeting for a decision. The reason we wanted to go to the city centre, besides the fact that we wanted to play our part in revitalising the city, is that the university, for those who do not know, is 4 km east of Limerick city. We wanted to bring the university into the heart of the city. That has been an objective for quite a number of years.