Mr. Michael Kelly:

In general, I found their attitude very constructive. I have summarised the attitudes that came through and, in all cases, I have actually grouped them as TUI on the one hand and everybody else as part of a group view. If I can deal with the latter first, I found in general a very strong commitment to the ideal of a technological university for the south east, some natural anxieties about the usual range of rationalisation things and also some levels of frustration with what had gone on already. One expects trade unions in a process like this to stand up and defend the rights of their members. That is why they are there and, as such, one expects in the normal course a certain amount of fire in that context. I found the predominant attitude was not so much concerned with personal interest, but was much more about getting on with this. It was mission focused. In relation to TUI, it has fairly well expressed its public attitude about the technological university. In summary, it is that it is not opposed to it but would like to understand a lot more about how it would work and how it would impact on its members in various ways. My response to that has been that the academic community will actually be at the heart of any bottom-up process around the design and implementation of technological university, so they will have every opportunity to participate, as is the case in Dublin now. The heart of these new institutions will actually be designed by the academic staff in them. They are right in there from the beginning and, in relation to industrial relations issues, there are formal processes to take care of them.