Results 4,221-4,240 of 9,350 for speaker:Verona Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: I cannot see any difficulty here. It is a matter of interest to the committee.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Is that the company that was employed in May?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: It was valued at €3.5 million

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: The engagement at the committee today reminds me of a child having raided the sweet jar and you are questioning the child, who is in continual denial, but you can see the chocolate all around their mouth. Professor Mey has been here before and I have said this to her several times. On the last appearance or the time before, it was confirmed there was a whistleblower. It was confirmed by...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Yes, I am referring to the Dunnes Stores site.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: It was confirmed by Professor Mey at the last committee that an employee of UL raised the matter of the Dunnes Stores site in a protected disclosure. Subsequently it was withdrawn. The object of the question is what Professor Mey did about it. Ultimately, what pre-empted the KPMG report was the probing of the Comptroller and Auditor General and this committee. It was not something done...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Mr. O'Connor seems to want to answer. Is he aware of the whistleblower that was confirmed at the previous meeting?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Mr. O'Connor has interjected a few times to tell us-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Professor Mey must have forgotten that or it did not come up in communication training.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Do not go back to the KPMG report. This pre-empts that. I am going to say this. Forget about it-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: -----because lessons are only learned when you get your hand caught in the sweet jar. There is no denying. You are there; your hand is in it. The reality is it does not matter. No lessons are learned unless there is accountability. I can clearly see here that somebody is of the understanding that just because we commissioned the KPMG report for, as I said, part of the arse covering, that...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: It is not really, a Chathaoirligh, to be fair. It describes the situation as we are discussing it.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Furthermore, I do not believe it is credible for Professor Mey to come in here and say she is concerned about the students who were hard-pressed for cash and that was part of the reason she took a judicial review of Irish Water. These are the same students that she absolutely refused to reimburse for prepaid accommodation during Covid-19 when they could not use that accommodation. They...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: I am treating the witness with respect, the same respect we have received here in the committee with the making of statements in which the public looking in, the people who were not reimbursed for their accommodation, see the squandering of €8 million trying to be justified and hidden behind the KPMG report. I am going to ask a question. The question about learning lessons is whether...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: I believe that I have several students who were not reimbursed. I can categorically refute Professor Mey's statement. UL did not reimburse all the students, by any means.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: Will Professor Mey answer the question as asked?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: That was not a question.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: In the seriousness with which it has been taken, were the engineers, who nobody knows who they were, re-employed to carry out any structural engagement on this building since it was purchased?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: That is not what I asked. I asked have any of the same actors among the engineers who compiled the two-page dossier to go to the HEA been retained.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2021: University of Limerick (18 May 2023)

Verona Murphy: I have one more question which is very pertinent. Did the university have legal advice on the purchase of that site?