Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 18 May 2023

Public Accounts Committee

Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick

9:30 am

Ms Rosemary Fogarty:

I might be able to help somewhat. We produced the 2021 statements, which we are here to speak about. We have accounting policies so we have to look at carrying value of assets in the context of necessity to impair for whatever reason. As part of that exercise I looked for some comfort around that. Separately the university, through a procurement process, engaged a firm to undertake a review of its portfolio of buildings, as regards reinstatement costs on a like-for-like basis. That included the Dunnes site and the Dunnes building. The reinstatement cost value of that site was in excess of €20 million, on a like-for-like basis with no improvements. From an accounting perspective, we took comfort from that. We were carrying the asset at an appropriate value. We have also been depreciating the asset since we bought it.