Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 25 January 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Technological Universities Act 2019 (Section 36) (Appointed Day) Order 2022: Discussion

Photo of Niall CollinsNiall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her comments and the support of her party on the projects around the advancement of technological universities around the country.

The Deputy raised the Cassells report on numerous occasions both here and in the Dáil. I do not have anything new to say to her on that. The Deputy knows its status in terms of having worked its way through the European Commission. It is in the programme for Government. It will be coming before Government and Cabinet shortly where a decision will have to be taken on it. We are all aware of the various options that were in the report. We are probably all agreed in terms of how we progress from here vis-à-visthe options. As the Deputy rightly said, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, and Minister of Finance, Deputy Donohoe, will appear before this committee shortly to further discuss that.

One of the key economies of scale a technological university will have, which we have seen from the advancement and creation of other technology universities, is the ability to increase its research and development capacity and particularly to tap into other streams of funding that become available by virtue of its university status. That will obviously now be available to the new Atlantic Technological University and will help it catch up and get up to speed in that regard.

I am not clear on the question with regard to public private partnerships.