Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Thank you. I will first comment briefly on the situation at St. Angela’s in Sligo, which is the subject of the first part of the meeting. I am pleased to introduce the draft order, the Technological Universities Act 2018 (Section 44F) (Appointed Day) Order 2023, to the committee. This draft order provides that the higher education institution known currently as St. Angela’s College, Sligo, shall on 1 November become part of the Atlantic Technological University, or ATU, as it is commonly referred to. The order needs to be approved by resolution of each House of the Oireachtas and I wish to thank the committee for considering the matter today.

In announcing its establishment a little over a year ago, I referenced ATU as a new powerhouse in the region and I meant that sincerely. I congratulate it and its leadership, its president, Dr. Orla Flynn, and all of its team for all they have achieved in a short time. This can be seen not only in the regional impact of the new TU but also in the cross-Border, all-island context, with exciting collaborative developments being pursued by ATU with Ulster University, and people will be aware of the announcement yesterday in terms of the expansion of Magee campus and the opportunities this presents.

The further expansion of such a powerhouse will further the reach and impact of the technological university in the region when it gains disciplines provided by the foremost initial teaching education facility for home economics in the country. That is the key point. St. Angela’s has been an absolute leader when it comes to home economics teaching in our country, among other things. The fact that it will be embedded in one of Ireland’s technological universities is a huge opportunity for ATU and St. Angela’s and, crucially, for the region as well. ATU will join with that institution’s proven excellence in other fields, such as nursing and health sciences, which will align with some of the work ATU is doing in places like Castlebar and Letterkenny.

The proposed incorporation would see ATU become the second largest of the five established TUs behind TU Dublin and among the top three or four largest higher education institutions, HEIs, in the country overall, which means the TU in the north west ends up becoming one of the largest universities in our country. As colleagues will know, the TU is spread across eight multi-campuses, rising to nine following incorporation, spanning four counties and offering over 600 programmes at all levels on the national framework of qualifications. This incorporation has been the result of years of hard work and dedicated effort by management, students and staff and, indeed, the wider stakeholder community in the enterprise, business and community spheres. I want to acknowledge this and to acknowledge everyone who has worked so hard and waited so long for this day. People have worked extraordinarily hard to get to this point and it is fair to say it is universally awaited and welcomed by all parties.

I take the opportunity to pay tribute to the Ursuline Order, which has very generously gifted the Lough Gill campus and additional lands to the new TU upon incorporation. That is an incredible legacy and an incredible gift to education in Ireland. In return, there will be legacy recognition of the dedicated service to higher education that the order has provided in Sligo for over 70 years.

This is the first incorporation application process under new legislative provisions and, as the first such application, I was advised by a panel of experts established by the Higher Education Authority which reported very positively to me on the application. The panel recommended, and I agreed, that any incorporation should be underpinned by a legal agreement which sets out the transfer of assets and liabilities between the parties upon incorporation, and which all parties, including the Ursulines and my Department, would accept. I made this a requirement of my decision of approval and the agreement has been duly made and signed off by the parties. I transmitted my final decision of approval to the chairs of the HEIs on 13 June.

The staff of the college are protected as their terms and conditions will be safeguarded, along with their pension rights. As such, I can see only positives in this proposed incorporation. I wholeheartedly commend the draft order to the committee for approval. I again thank all concerned with this incorporation - the presidents, the governing bodies, the staff and the students of St. Angela’s and the ATU, a wide variety of business, enterprise and community stakeholders in the west and north west, the international advisory panel, the Higher Education Authority, Quality and Qualifications Ireland, my Department and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, all of which played their roles, statutory and non-statutory, in getting the matter to this point. I also thank and acknowledge the cross-party work on this over a long period of time, both in terms of the establishment of ATU and working towards the incorporation of St. Angela's. I sincerely hope we are in a position to commend this draft order today.