The University Lodge, the official residence of UCD President Orla Feely, has spent €142,463.89 on catering and events since 2022. Between June and December 2023, €53,480.84 was spent on eight events: a ‘Garden Party’, ‘Lunch’, ‘Coffee morning’, and five unspecified ‘Dinners’
Records obtained by The University Observer under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 reveals that The University Lodge, the official residence of UCD President Orla Feely, has spent €142,463.89 on catering and events since 2022.
The records show that between June and December 2022, when Acting President Professor Mark Rogers resided in the lodge, €43,774.24 was spent on seven events: a ‘Garden Party’, ‘Donors Lunch’, ‘Foundation Dinner’, and four unspecified ‘Dinners’. The ‘Foundation Dinner’ refers to the UCD Foundation, an independent registered charity which funds student scholarships, campus development, and research in UCD.
Professor Orla Feely became President of UCD in May 2023.
Between June and December of that year €53,480.84 was spent on eight events: a ‘Garden Party’, ‘Lunch’, ‘Coffee morning’, and five unspecified ‘Dinners’.
For 2024, the expense and events records are limited from January to October, yet show that in that time period, €45,208.81 was spent on just three events: a ‘Dinner’ in February, a ‘Dinner’ in April, and a ‘Garden Party’ in September.
The breakdown of costs between these events, and the number of attendees per event, is currently unclear, though the UCD FOI Office confirmed to the University Observer that “invitations came from the President and were sent to alumni and friends, partners and collaborators.”
The total ‘Operational Spend’ of the President’s residence totalled €84,792.22 in 2021, €120,078.61 in 2022, and €117,747.46 in 2023. This operational spend consists of cleaning services, mechanical planned preventive maintenance (PPM), an intruder alarm service and a gate intercom service, catering and events, and finally landscaping and grounds maintenance.
Landscaping and Ground maintenance has cost €54,000 per year from 2021 to 2023, which the records state is part of a wider landscaping services contract.
The spending on ‘Cleaning Services’ by the University Lodge has notably reduced since 2022, when €18,262.15 was spent in one year. In 2023, the year President Feely took office, this cost was reduced by over €12,000 to €6,224.40. Similar to the landscaping costs, these cleaning services are part of a wider cleaning contract held by the University.
The University Lodge sits behind the UCD Bowl, and was acquired by UCD in 1949. As set out in Chapter 3 of Statute 25 - Consolidation of Statute 6 of The University, which states “The President shall reside in the official residence provided during the President’s term of office,” UCD Presidents ‘past and present’ have resided in this building, though not always without controversy.
In 2002, UCD set aside €1.5m for “essential works such as roofing and sewage” in the area of the University Lodge, according to an Irish Independent report.
In 2004, the Irish Independent further reported that more than €3 million had been spent on the refurbishment of The University Lodge whilst Dr Hugh Brady was President.
The Sunday Independent initially reported the value of refurbishments as €1.5 million, but the reported figure was subsequently doubled.
A spokesperson for UCD at the time responded to the report and disputed the recorded figure, and acknowledged, “Before the president took up residence in August 2004, there was an amount of approximately €1.5m set aside to refurbish the interior of the building.” UCD denied spending €3million on refurbishments, but said that “in addition to the cost of renovation, the area on campus around the lodge had been redeployed, which had an impact on the lodge’s grounds.” At the time, the University insisted that the renovations were necessary because “the building had no significant investment for 20-30 years” and “was in need of upgrading and refurbishment.”
More recently in 2019, The University Observer revealed €153,720.10 had been spent on events held in the University Lodge between 2017 and 2019, when Professor Andrew Deeks was President of UCD.
During his last year in the role in 2021, there was a significant reduction of spending on catering and events, coming to €8,420.79, though this spend was likely reduced due to the Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time.
One year after this investigation was conducted, it was further revealed by The University Observer that Mr Deeks had claimed €92,753.88 in travel expenses between 2016 to 2018. The article reported that “€59,575 was spent on flights over the two years, with €6,613.24 being spent on taxis.” Furthermore, €23,783 was claimed for “hotels and accommodation” during the same time period.
President Feely did not respond to a request for comment.
This story is being updated