Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It seems things keep recurring in UL. That is the real issue with UL's credibility and we are being told that there is a new policy in place. You can have all the policies you like but they need to be followed through and implemented. What Professor Kilcommins just said to me was that the content of the first report was followed on by another report in 2015, which he said basically exonerated any fault, and now he has gone back beyond 2015 again. The issue is that this is taxpayers' money. I have a further issue with the fact that UL received URDF funding given that we are questioning the cost of the site. The valuation for that said site, had it been bought for the purchase price that it was equated to, UL should not be receiving a further €750,000, of taxpayers' money, because it should have money to do what it needs to do. On top of overpaying for a site at the expense of taxpayers, UL has received a further €750,000 in which to try to develop the site. By the way, Limerick City and County Council is funded by the Exchequer, so when it is said that UL is public, private or whatever, I would say to Professor Mey that it is all taxpayers' money and I will remind Limerick City and County Council.

I would say to Mr. Lemass that it is not that the Department's role should be in any way seen as negated here. There are serious questions that need to be answered by the Department on how the funding has not, in some shape or form, been withheld or withheld for longer in regard to UL. At the end of all this, the only people who suffer are the students and the taxpayers.

We have spent almost three hours at a committee meeting and yet we still have not reached the tip of the iceberg in terms of the issues of just governance and due diligence that have created anything but a transparent view of what goes on at UL.