Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The level of financing the HEA is providing is a drop in the ocean in the overall cost of €6.7 million. I understand that last year the HEA provided €200,000 to the consortium in the Munster region, which will go nowhere towards meeting the costs. The Minister has clarified that the governing bodies in Munster have said they will meet it from within their own budgets through efficiencies but nobody knows what those efficiencies are. They have not outlined what they are and that is of huge concern to the stakeholders involved.

The expert panel report makes a number of recommendations to the proposers, one of which is around financing. It states they need to be very alert to the possibility that in practice, it may not prove possible to diversify income streams as quickly as current projections imply.

They go on to talk about raising student fees and various other sources of income, including income from research.

I have an issue with what the governing bodies have stated. I will finish on this point. The unions asked whether any element of the panel's report would be embedded in the decision of the governing bodies. The governing bodies replied by stating they did not see anything in the panel's report that would cause them to change anything in their stage 2 plan. The HEA has stated these observations or recommendations are creating a significant challenge for the consortium as it aims to achieve the criteria for the merger of the institutes into a technological university. According to the HEA, the further development of such a university depends on the implementation of the observations or recommendations made by the consortium. The HEA is stating designation as a technological university depends on the implementation of the recommendations, but the governing bodies are stating they do not see anything in the recommendations that will make them deviate from the original plans. It does not weigh up. We are in a situation where we are so far down the line in terms of a merger that there is a growing possibility that technological university status may not be awarded to the Munster technological university. The cost involved is huge.

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