Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and what I regard as very progressive legislation. In handing over responsibility to the HEA, tribute should nonetheless be paid to the Department of Education and Science for the way it has built up these institutes over the past 25 to 30 years and made them the success they are today. The institutes are an important part of the attraction of this country to industry. Their geographical spread and the ease with which people can access them is also important because in the past it would not have been economically possible for people to travel vast distances to further their education.

In her speech the Minister noted the progress from what began as mainly second level education to third and fourth level. The Tipperary Business and Rural Development Institute is not included in the Schedule. That is probably correct because that institute may still need the special care and attention of the Department of Education and Science. It has not yet progressed to the stage where it could come under the remit of the HEA.

I must declare two points of interest. I have a sister who is a lecturer at the very fine Dublin Institute of Technology. She is currently co-ordinating a mathematics project, funded by the EU, with the ten accession countries. The consolidation of the DIT at Grangegorman is a very exciting prospect. I am a member of the Waterford Institute of Technology Foundation and like Senator John Paul Phelan, I support its impressive submission seeking university status. I hasten to add that I agree, broadly speaking, with the binary system and parity of esteem but that does not mean that there can be absolutely no progression from one to the other.

There is a very strong regional and educational case to be made in the case of Waterford, which having visited the Carriganore campus recently, reminds me more and more of the University of Limerick. The WIT aspires to provide a service similar to that provided by the University of Ulster. I recommend, notwithstanding this Bill, that the Minister gives sympathetic consideration to a case that has support across the south eastern region.