Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I remind the Minister once again that WIT is the top-performing institute of technology in the country, with three of the top-performing gateways garnering the most EU research funding within the sector. The Minister will understand our frustration. I assure him that I certainly would welcome his political patronage on this issue, as would all the people of the south east. The most important issue is that, at the end of process he is proposing, we have a university of scale and one fit for purpose. It must rival the institutions in the other regions. To date, as I said, some of the funding allocations appear to have gone to areas that already have national universities. I remind the Minister that we in the south east, including Waterford, do not have such an institution. This is our opportunity to have a fully functioning university of scale. We will then be able to contribute to the national Exchequer at the rate at which we want and deserve to contribute.

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