THE University of Limerick (UL) has no concrete plans or funding to develop a city campus on its controversial former Dunnes Stores building on Sarsfield Street in Limerick City, it emerged this Thursday (October 3).
Appearing before a sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), acting UL President Professor Shane Kilcommins told committee members that the university has no set plans or funding to develop a world class waterfront building on the former supermarket site.
UL bought the site in 2019 for €8.3million, despite not having any formal valuations carried out to figure out what the site was worth at the time.
Further governance issues at the university have since come to light when it emerged that UL purchased 20 houses in the Limerick suburb of Rhebogue for €12.58million – over double what the properties would have been worth at the time.
It has been reported that the Rhebogue houses also did not have the correct planning permission to operate as student accommodation, with Limerick City and County Council planners flagging planning issues with the university.
The total purchase price of the 20 Rhebogue homes would mean that the university paid close to €630,000 per house, almost double the market value for homes in the area at the time.
UL has had a number of PAC appearances since the governance issues were made public, with Prof Kilcommins telling the latest sitting this Thursday that the purchase of the Dunnes Stores site was a “bad decision”, and that just 30 per cent of the total building was currently in use.
When asked by Brian Stanley, Chair of the PAC, Prof Kilcommins said that there were no figures available for what it would cost to bring the building into “meaningful” use.
“The challenge with this property has been that for a very long period of time, information was restricted in respect of it. It was never brought through the Executive Committee. It was never considered. We made a decision in haste and it was a bad decision,” he said.
The PAC heard from a senior UL official that a complete redevelopment of the site could cost in the region of €80million to €100million, but that there is uncertainty around UL’s ability or willingness to deliver the project.
“The question is whether the university has either the money or the wherewithal to pull off a redevelopment of that scale, and that is very uncertain,” the UL official said.
“You’re talking €80 to €100 million for a complete rebuild, but to refurbish the current building, my understanding is, is to put it back into use, is in the order of €10 million.”
PAC member Deputy Verona Murphy called on UL to cut their losses and sell the Dunnes Stores building.
“I want to see the Dunnes Store site sold, because I think it has put such a poor taste that’s now attached to the University of Limerick. I don’t think you’ll ever shake it off, and I think you should consider that this is something that you never intended to buy, certainly not for the money that it has cost, and that you would be much better off offloading it to someone who can take responsibility,” Deputy Murphy said.
Responding to queries from the Limerick Post, a spokesman for UL said that “a preliminary business case is being developed in cooperation with Limerick City and County Council and in line with due diligence, a proper appraisal of options is taking place”.
