Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday we heard that the Minister for Education and Skills intended to legislate to ban cheating services at third level. While legislation to strengthen Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, is welcome, it is hardly the most pressing matter in the education system. A year after his appointment we still have not seen the Minister's response to the Labour Party's Equal Status (Admission to Schools) Bill which was passed in this House and is due to formally pass Second Stage on 28 June. I am interested in a range of other Bills in the education sphere, but I wish to ask about one in particular. Will the Taoiseach provide an update on the Technological Universities Bill which has been stuck on Committee Stage since before the last election? The Bill is absolutely essential for the amalgamation of the institutes of technology and the creation of new technological universities, for which enormous efforts have been made. Originally there seemed to be a blockage because of a dispute with a trade union, but it cannot be the case that this is an impediment to an essential part of the third level education strategy. When will the Bill be advanced?

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