Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is an issue we certainly will be revisiting into the future. I welcome the Minister's commitment in this regard.

I will do now what I generally do, which is to apologise and raise a related question. The question will not shock the Minister greatly. It is a specific question about technological university status for Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, which he visited recently. I have had my own meetings lately at which I have heard some positive information in regard to criteria being met. However, there still are major worries. There have been a number of missteps and we know the route map will be through the provisions of section 38 of the Technological Universities Act 2018. We need to ensure it happens. The Minister probably has met those involved with the regional development centre and has seen the huge impact DkIT is having in regard to research, the whole M1 Border corridor area and also in regard to business innovation, including its involvement with Enterprise Ireland and all the other agencies. The one point everybody involved makes is the absolute necessity of ensuring DkIT reaches technological university status. Parents and students need that too.

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