Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

This is too long, a view supported in the OECD report. Life in the institutes of technology moves quickly and they must be responsive to change. That pace will only increase as our industry links and research and development capabilities increase, as I hope they will. There is a need for flexibility to be able to cope with these changes and to ensure we have people with the skills and talents to respond to them. The chairs of the governing bodies should be the best people available at the time. I urge the Minister to consider this point.

I also ask her to consider relinquishing the power of the Minister for Education and Science to appoint the chair of the governing body and to allow the body to carry out this function in the same manner as the universities. Surely at this stage we can trust them to make the right decisions. It would be no harm either to remove this position from the politicisation that has occurred in the past. The Bill presents a unique opportunity to do this.

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