I propose to take Questions Nos. 559, 566 and 567 together.
Concerns have been raised in relation to aspects of the governance process associated with UL’s acquisition of the former Dunnes Stores site in Limerick City Centre in 2019.
The site acquisition in question was not grant-funded by the Exchequer. An independent review of the site acquisition process was commissioned subsequently by UL from KPMG.
Last year, on foot of the concerns raised, my Department took the decision to pause €1.7 million of devolved capital grant funding to UL pending the completion of a governance assurance process by UL, including their response to any findings from the KPMG report.
In addition, a UL project was one of eight projects recently approved in principle, following technical evaluation, under the second round of the Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation Pathfinder Programme. The release of funding for this project has also been also paused.
The pause of funding will be kept under review pending the sharing by UL of relevant matters and remedial actions taken on foot of the KPMG report, which would allow the ongoing governance assurance process to be completed.