THE UNIVERSITY of Limerick (UL) needs to pull up its socks before the Council start playing hardball with the third level institute.
This was the warning from a number of councillors at this Monday’s Metropolitan District meeting. The call came following a motion from Green Party councillor Seán Hartigan who had proposed that a submerged metal bench in a popular bathing area at ‘Sandy’ on the Plassey Bank at UL be removed.
His motion, he told council members, was now largely redundant, as the part of the bench protruding from the river, which was a significant risk to swimmers and animals, has since been removed by the Council.
However, Cllr Hartigan pointed out that this work was not under the local authority’s remit. The part of the Plassey Bank where the dangerous object poked out of the water, he explained, was in a part of the river under the jurisdiction of the university.
“I had been trying to get this object removed for quite awhile. You would think trying to get something like a metal object in a bathing area removed would be easy, but by God it wasn’t. Talking about passing the buck. Everyone I went to blamed somebody else.
“Having spoken to the OPW (Office of Public Works), it would seem the riparian landowner there is actually UL and they are responsible for managing the river there. But I got absolutely no engagement from UL, absolutely no help. In fact, the way I was treated when I did get through wasn’t very nice. They didn’t seem to be taking this issue seriously at all,” he claimed.
“I am still going to engage with UL to try and get the remainder of the bench removed. It is a lot safer now than it was and I would like to thank Limerick City and County Council for their help with that.”
Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely gave it to UL with both barrels as she firmly held the university in her sights at the Dooradoyle council chambers this week.
”UL are something to behold now when it comes to engagement. I have never in my life came across a more useless organisation when you try speak to someone in charge, or try and get some sort of a result, or even try and highlight something. I’ve had similar experiences with UL that Seán has had and it is just unacceptable,” Cllr Kiely said.
”They come to us for different requirements throughout the calendar year and I think if they don’t start playing ball we shouldn’t be playing ball with them at all. Mutual respect is needed in any workplace.
“For them to be treating councillors with such total and utter disregard is downright rude. It’s not acceptable. They either pull up their socks or we start playing hardball when it comes to their requests that come through our area here. They need to be held to account. A frank discussion is needed on how this relationship can be mended. We’ve had other issues with UL previously, so this isn’t a new phenomenon at all for us.
”The bench would still be there if we were waiting for UL. I’d say they wouldn’t even answer the phone or answer an email, let alone do a bit of work,” she suggested.
Labour Party councillor Elena Secas took a similar view.
“I fully agree, UL need to step up to the plate and take responsibility. Any safety concerns with any property must be addressed, and if this is their responsibility, they need to address it.
“UL has been ranked recently among the 500 best universities in the world and not addressing safety concerns is not doing them any favours, or to their reputation. They really need to think twice before they give any negative response to a very genuine concern raised,” Cllr Secas insisted.
In a response given to the Limerick Post, a spokesman for UL said the University believed the issue met a “satisfactory conclusion”.
“There is ongoing engagement between UL and the local elected representatives on a number of issues, including this one.
“UL worked in partnership with Limerick City and County Council to bring this particular situation to a satisfactory conclusion,” the UL spokesman said.
