Dr. Maria Hinfelaar:

Could I just revisit some of the questions that were raised that we have not addressed? A very important question was on the challenges and supports associated with amalgamation processes. I want to touch briefly on this. First, we now have the Croke Park agreement, mark 1, which has a redeployment section. LIT incorporated the Tipperary Institute. We certainly utilised the mechanisms under the Croke Park agreement to redeploy staff who were no longer required to do what they had been doing. For instance, we removed the entire middle management team in the Tipperary school. Some individuals have gone to other institutes of technology and one or two have taken up other positions in the public sector. One or two have taken up teaching roles. There is flexibility. It is essential that the successor to the Croke Park agreement, irrespective of what it is called, have a more sophisticated redeployment mechanism. We actually found the existing mechanism difficult to manage. There are all sorts of restrictions, including in respect of distances beyond which one is not allowed to travel. There is really a need to flesh out the process much better and make it one of the vehicles through which we can successfully amalgamate existing organisations, thereby making staff more mobile and flexible.

Second, legislation is required. Currently, the 13 institutes of technology are listed in one of the Schedules to the legislation. In order to amalgamate, an amendment is required. Simple steps such as this need to be taken.