Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. It is a great and momentous day for our Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest. I am absolutely delighted. It is a new university bringing together the Athlone and Limerick institutes of technology. It will really transform our region. It is very important because of the opportunities we will have to potentially expand campuses and hubs out into the likes of Roscommon, east Galway and other regional areas. In this way, by linking the towns and villages with universities, we are driving excellence across the region and reflecting the communities we come from. Dr. Ryan and I have spoken many times on this. It is a really wonderful day.

I have a few questions, the first of which is for Dr. Ryan on the importance of balanced representation and the challenges and opportunities in bringing such large institutes together under technological universities. Reference was made to the numbers on the governing authorities. In this period of transition, I am curious on how key this is to the success of integration.

In front of the committee today we have the higher education authority Bill, which is to reform legislation that is more than 50 years old. There is a focus on it now because we have such a high number of students going to third level education, which is brilliant and is possibly the highest number in Europe if not worldwide. It is also about the breadth of programmes they study, how we are to maintain excellence, and building strategies around this.

I thank Mr. Miley for his presentation and for his submission on behalf of the IUA. My question for Mr. Miley is on performance frameworks. All of our universities know about performance frameworks when it comes to the QS World University Rankingsand ensuring our universities are there in the top 1,000, top 500, top 250 and top 100. That is how Ireland shows its excellence across the world. In Mr. Miley's submission he referred to research. I was a contract researcher in NUI Galway and I understand the concerns and needs in that regard. Will Mr. Miley expand on how important is the investment in research and innovation as a driver of economic growth? How are we going to ensure that by funding research and innovation, we will drive and maintain our position on those QS World University Rankings? I apologise that it is such a broad question but I ask that Mr. Miley would reiterate the importance of research, as he mentioned previously.

I welcome Councillor Mary Hoade. She and I were on Galway County Council together and it is wonderful to see her here today as a great and a very strong representative. I have spoken about performance frameworks and we know about competency within our council, along with the importance of training and learning. I have seen it all through the council myself as a councillor on Galway County Council. If there were gaps in technological university boards, how would Councillor Hoade see councillors meeting those competency-based gaps?

I thank Professor Hegarty for his comments on inclusion.