Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The teachers are to a very large extent the institutes. They are the staff who deliver the education. They are deeply concerned and I am utterly convinced by their concerns that this is being rushed for political reasons without proper consultation with them.

Next week the TUI is out on strike again because the institutes have been savaged. Although I do not have the figures in front of me, if I am correct they have lost 34% of their funding. There has been a very significant increase in the number of students while funding has been cut. One can imagine, against that background, they are fairly sceptical about what on the face of it looks like something with which candidates can go back to their constituencies stating, "We are giving you a university." They know this is nonsense when their funding has been slashed, when the numbers have gone through the roof without additional staff resources and they fear that the institutes of technology could be seriously undermined and that the diversity of course offerings on a regional basis will be lost as mergers go ahead and institutes are subsumed into one another. What is special and unique and has been so successful about the institutes of technology will be lost. We should take their concerns seriously. It is entirely fair to state that this should not go ahead without the agreement of the teaching staff because without them one has nothing. Their concerns are legitimate.

At this stage, the teaching staff's hope is that the Government will not sign off on this before the dissolution of the Dáil so there can be proper discussion and debate in the new Dáil. The Government should listen to that appeal and accept it so we can have a proper discussion on the concerns of the teachers on this.

While the teachers are not against the idea of technological universities, as the Minister knows, they are very concerned about the context in which it is happening and they would like to be assured that it is not just about more cuts, rationalisation and even a push towards privatisation under the guise of upgrading and reform.

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