Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I was a history student, the first thing I was told was that one should always endeavour to be objective in terms of one's historical narrative, to try to see all sides of the story and the equation and not to view things through the prism of one's own narrow perspective or partisan view of things. I recall that when I was the Minister for Education and Science, many of the institutes of technology or the then regional technical colleges were looking for status upgrades and so on. I recall looking at the plant, at the actual buildings, and saying that it would be better to invest substantially in the capacity of the colleges. My legacy in Waterford was buying the additional land which has guaranteed, since the late 1990s, the very significant expansion of Waterford Institute of Technology to such an extent that, under international peer review, it can compete to be a university and will become a technological university. That is the way universities should become universities. It should not be at the whim of politicians arriving at some platform and announcing that they are going to make a body into a university, with no regard for capacity or a whole range of investments that should happen in advance. That is the approach I took as Minister for Education and Science. We had a binary system but we set up a peer review and have provided for technological universities to happen. Successive Ministers have progressed the idea of developing institutes of technology into technological universities and doing so in a way that is fair and that has credibility internationally. When it has credibility internationally, the region benefits in terms of more investment. The Waterford Institute of Technology has really advanced over the last decade or two and has developed significant specialties, not least in the areas of enterprise and industry and quite a number of foreign direct investments have occurred as a result of that.

I would say that the time has come to talk up Waterford and its third level institution because it has a lot to commend itself. That is what I would do. I have great belief in that institute and I believe that along with Carlow Institute of Technology, it is going to become a technological university, which is great for the region. We are committed to doing that and to the consequential investments that will be required of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris.

In respect of the hospital, Deputy Shanahan's constituency colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, has been tenacious and alongside the Deputy and others, is determined to advance the situation with regard to the cath lab and cardiac cover. The programme for Government commits to the delivery of a second cath lab in University Hospital Waterford. Funding has been allocated and the contractor for the construction of the new lab was formally appointed in March. The project commenced in May of this year, with a work programme of around 13 months. The equipping and staffing of the lab is provided for and will happen.

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