Prof Kerstin Mey, the President of University of Limerick, has announced her resignation, which takes effect three months after she began her sick leave due to the repercussions from a mishandled property transaction. Since the narrative surfaced in March that the university had overpaid €5.2 million for two dozen student houses two years ago, Prof Mey has found herself under extreme scrutiny.
The contentious transaction is being probed by the Comptroller & Auditor General, and the Higher Education Authority has also launched a review into the University’s governance.
“It is with regret that we announce that Prof Mey will be stepping down from her role as University of Limerick’s President,” declared Prof Brigid Laffan, chancellor of the institution, in an email to the staff on Friday afternoon. “As of the 1st of September 2024, Prof Mey will be accepting a professorship at the university itself.”
In 2022, the University of Limerick purchased 20 homes from a private developer which have been home to 80 postgraduate students since October 2023. Questions about the transaction prompted a reassessment of the deal’s valuation.
A confidential report from the university indicated that there was a lack of accurate and explicit data on the housing project’s expense previous to the confirmation of the €11.9 million deal, where the university paid well beyond the market rates. According to Niamh O’Donoghue’s, a former state worker, the costs communicated to the university leadership were not synchronised with the August 2022 agreement.
Even though the university’s governing body initially consented to a figure of €10.9 million, the price surged by €1.08 million in the last contract which was signed only nine days afterwards. This inflation was credited to an unmentioned rental provision within the contract. A subsequent “take it or leave it” proposition from the builder resulted in a €540,000 discount on the price.
Prof Mey admitted, before her sick leave commenced in March, that the university paid a lot more than the market value for the Rhebogue properties, situated 3km away from the university campus. This recent scandal dealt a severe blow as the university was already bracing itself to absorb a €3 million deficit in its 2022-2023 accounts after overspending on the purchase of a former Dunnes Stores site in Limerick for a new city centre campus five years ago.
The Rhebogue incident has spurred most members of the advisory committee to the president, helmed by Professor Mey herself, to suggest that she reassess her role. A letter expressing doubt in her capacity to address the housing surplus was signed by 10 out of the 13 individuals on the UL executive committee. The devaluation, coupled with the anticipated financial shortfall brought about by the Dunnes site impairment, is predicted to yield a deficit in the UL’s fiscal year of 2022-2023.