Mr. Colm Kelly:

Absolutely, yes. There are two remaining institutes of technology that have not sought technological university status. The other institutes of technology formed consortiums that then applied for technological university status thus establishing Munster Technological University, MTU, the Technological University of the Shannon, TUS and the Atlantic Technological University, ATU. Dundalk kept itself out of the process, as has the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IADT. The TUI views this as a mistake and that the two institutions should now be seeking, possibly under a different parts of the Technological Universities Act 2018, technological university status under any process available to them. In the last session, the HEA mentioned the technological university transformation funding, TUTF, and the landscape funding that it was issuing. The TUTF and landscape funding is going to Dundalk and IADT, and yet we see no progress in terms of moving those institutions into a technological university. It is our position that the HEA has a part to play as well in assisting the two institutions in seeking technical university status.