Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 159 provides that the first governing body shall be appointed by the Minister, comprising a chairperson, two external members and one external member nominated by the relevant education and training board or boards. The governing body shall establish procedures for the conducting of elections and the appointing of members to enable the full complement of members of the governing body to be completed. This applies where the technological university in question comprises two or more institutes of technology or four or more institutes of technology, as appropriate.

Amendment No. 161 is a technical amendment to amend an erroneous reference to Schedule 2.

Amendment No. 162 provides that the Minister may designate a person as the first president of a technological university and that the duration of that person's term of office shall not exceed ten years. It shall include any unserved term of office of a person designated as the first president of a technological university who at the time is a director of an institute of technology or a president of the Dublin Institute of Technology. A term of office of up to ten years is deemed to be a sufficient period to attract candidates of high calibre through open competition and a period which will afford the new technological university sufficient time to experience a period of stability and implementation of the strategic vision for the technological university and a plan to be developed under the first president.

Amendment No. 163 provides for the insertion of a new section into the Bill to provide for arrangements for a director or president of an applicant institute who does not become the first president of a technological university and who shall instead become a fixed-term employee of the technological university for the duration of his or her contract of employment.

Amendment No. 164 deals with circumstances where a single applicant college joins an existing applicant technological university and an order is made under section 40 dissolving the applicant college and where the order, in turn, increases the composition of the technological university from three to four. The increase in the technological university composition of institutes will necessitate a different larger composition of the governing body such that the relevant provisions of section 12(2) in making regulations establishing procedures for the conduct of elections, seeking nominations for appointments and the appointment of members to a governing body must be complied with.

Amendments Nos. 165 to 170, inclusive, and 172 to 176, inclusive, are technical drafting amendments which are necessitated following consultations with the Office of the Attorney General.

Amendment No. 177 inserts a new section that provides for the arrangements for the suspension or dismissal of a member of staff before an order is made under section 46 or section 53 establishing a technological university. The amendment provides that the earlier decision-making procedures commenced initially under the Dublin Institute of Technology Act 1992 or the Regional Technical Colleges Act 1992 shall run their due course. The amendment was agreed to previously on Committee Stage of the Technological Universities Bill 2015.

Amendment No. 178 inserts a new section that provides for the arrangements for an academic council in terms of the continuity of a recommendation made by an academic council under the Dublin Institute of Technology Act 1992 or the Regional Technical Colleges Act 1992 before an order is made on an application for technological university designation. It provides that any such recommendation shall hold forth under the technological universities legislation. The recommendations in question relate to programmes for the development of research or the awarding of fellowships, scholarships, prizes or other awards. The amendment was agreed to previously on Committee Stage of the Technological Universities Bill 2015.

Amendment No. 179 inserts a new section on the arrangements for certain procedures where a process has been commenced under the relevant 1992 legislation for the selection, admission, retention or exclusion of students, the conduct of examinations or the evaluation of the academic progress of students, or the awarding of scholarships, prizes or other awards to students or other persons but the process has not been completed before the making of the order establishing a technological university. In these circumstances, the commenced process shall continue as if an order for the establishment of the technological university had not been made. The provision also provides that where a recommendation has been made by the academic council under the 1992 legislation on the selection, admission, retention or exclusion of students but a final decision has not been made by the governing body on a student, both the academic council and the recommendation shall continue in being until a final decision of that governing body is so made. This amendment was also previously agreed to on Committee Stage of the Technological Universities Bill 2015.