Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 18 May 2023
Public Accounts Committee
Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick
9:30 am
Mr. John Kelly:
Obviously, the context for the engagement was the acquisition of the site, which was a former Dunnes Stores and is now a city campus. A lot of the concerns that arose from the HEA related to those kind of things. It wanted to be satisfied that the university was taking the appropriate steps to ensure that future acquisitions and things like that were done in accordance with circulars, guidelines and the university's established procedures. The kind of things it looked at were having a named person at an appropriate senior level in the university, which we now refer to as a promoter, and that person would take responsibility for showing that all aspects in connection with the acquisition would be taken forward and the due diligence steps to be taken in regard to any future acquisition.