Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 10 December 2015

Public Accounts Committee

Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013
Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013

12:20 pm

Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

Obviously, it is principally a matter for the two institutes but given the Government's priority in this area, we are supporting the engagement of the facilitator we discussed at the last meeting. In fact, the facilitator was chosen in light of her experience of facilitation. We are actually expanding the amount of facilitation to host a number of further meetings to assist in what Professor Donnelly has referred to. We are confident that the two institutes are working well together. The Minister committed additional funding of €2 million for next year to support all the technological institutes in consolidating in respect of applications for technological university status. The HEA is currently going through a process, using additional funding it has made available from within its own overall budget, to have applications from various higher education institutions that are seeking to move towards amalgamation. They are going through that process at present. We are making additional funding available towards supporting this and to help the Minister's assistants in expanding both the loan for the Carriganore sports complex and the timescale for the loan. This is also support for WIT-----