Former University of Limerick (UL) president Prof Kerstin Mey is seeking a High Court injunction preventing the university from proceeding with any reinvestigation in connection with claims she misled the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (Pac) or a previous investigation officer.
Mey, UL professor of visual culture, resigned as president in 2024 as part of a settlement agreement after she was threatened with disciplinary action over due diligence and adherence to policy issues during the university’s 2022 purchase of a 20-house development at Rhebogue, Co Limerick, for rent to 80 postgraduate and research students.
The university paid some €12.4 million for the development which was valued for the Comptroller and Auditor General just a year later at €6.5 million with an “in-use” value put at €7.4 million.
Mey, in a sworn statement seeking the injunction, said this led to public controversy and a delegation from the university was invited to appear before the Pac on May 18th, 2023.
She said an issue arose around why UL’s chief corporate officer (CCO), Andrew Flaherty, was not in attendance before the Pac, even though he stayed the night before in the same hotel as the delegation, had dinner with them, paid for by the university, and also claimed travelling expenses to Dublin. It later emerged he was also texting the delegation during the Pac meeting.
Mey said Flaherty was not listed as a member of the delegation because he had a long-standing prior commitment on May 18th and was on a day’s leave then.
In August 2023, Caroline Jenkinson was appointed by a newly appointed special disclosures group at the university following a protected disclosure to the minister for further and higher education.
Jenkinson was to investigate the circumstances surrounding the appointment of Mr Flaherty as CCO and the reply given to the Pac about why he had not been in attendance at the May 18th meeting.
Jenkinson found no wrongdoing on behalf of Mey or her representatives in relation to Flaherty’s non-attendance.
Mey was absent on sick leave from March 2024 and due to return on June 6th, 2024, but was put on special leave from then. In the meantime, another university delegation had met with the Pac.
UL’s audit and risk committee conducted a review in early 2024 of the €12.4 million housing purchase and concluded that it could not be said that due diligence was undertaken at all stages or that university policies and processes were adhered to.
Mediation followed between Mey and the university. It resulted in a settlement whereby she would resign her position from August 31st, 2024, with a particular clause stating no disciplinary action would be brought against her. She was to move to a new €175,000 a year post as professor of visual culture.
Mey said media controversy over the housing deal continued. And in May 2025, the disclosures group told her a reinvestigation was to be carried out over an “apparent conflict of information” in what was said by the former president to the first investigation and to the Pac.
Solicitors’ correspondence followed with Mey disputing the right of the university to reopen the investigation. The university maintained its position.
She initiated legal proceedings last December seeking to prevent the university from initiating any disciplinary proceedings in connection with the allegation that she misled the Pac.
She said she also faces the prospect of a proposed separate investigation into decisions taken with regard to revised payment arrangements for the housing deal.
She was invited to a meeting on Tuesday next in relation to the reinvestigation.
On Friday, Marcus Dowling, counsel for Mey, was granted permission for short service of injunction proceedings restraining a reinvestigation. The application was ex parte, or with only the Mey side present.
Dowling said his client has told the defendant she will not be attending the meeting and would not be doing so.
Judge Brian Cregan said the case could return on Tuesday.