Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The issue is whether there will be job losses in the institutes of technology, specifically Cork and Tralee, but also more generally, on foot of this Bill and the merger into the Munster technical university. Job losses could happen in different ways. They could happen on day one as a result of the merger or they could happen down the road, such as later in year one or in year two. The Minister was asked a straight question and, in the answer she gave, she quoted section 50 of the Bill, which seems to give a clear indication that there will not be job losses on day one. We can put that in the bank, but then we must ask whether the way this could work out will lead to job losses down the road, and the Minister is far less clear in that regard. On top of saying she hates to give guarantees, she said that, sometimes, courses change. In that context, she is not able to give a guarantee about job losses.

It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that courses will change on foot of this merger. If there are two almost identical courses in college A and college B and all the students are grouped together from different locations with teleconferencing, it would lend itself to changes in the courses which take place. Resources from one course could be freed up and both lecturing and administrative staff could be affected. Incidentally, such a development, far from improving standards for students, would lower standards but that is not the main issue. Notwithstanding the fact that the TUI has signed up to this, there are more than one or two TUI members who have questions and concerns about this and these concerns are genuine. I do not think they will have been lessened in any way by the comments of the Minister because she seems to be saying that there is a guarantee for day one while, a little bit down the road, the picture is not so clear and no guarantees can be given. For Solidarity, that is not good enough, even if it is good enough for the Government. The issue in this debate is whether it is good enough for Fianna Fáil. Is Fianna Fáil going to vote for the Bill on the basis of a somewhat half-hearted guarantee or is it not? The ball is in Fianna Fáil's court.

See this speech in context