Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

This concerns amendment No. 45 and refers to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Amendment No. 45 provides clarification on an amendment inserted into Schedule 3 of the Bill on Committee Stage in this House. It is an amendment to the Universities Act 1997, dealing with the designation of degrees and other qualifications of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RCSI. A previous amendment that was inserted into Schedule 3 on Committee Stage in the Seanad provided for degrees and qualifications of the RCSI to be degrees and qualifications of the NUI where they are approved by the NUI and for so long as the RCSI remains a recognised college of the NUI. This could be interpreted as meaning that if the RCSI were to cease to be a recognised college, degrees and qualifications awarded while it was a recognised college would no longer be degrees and qualifications of the NUI, and this was not the intention of the original amendment. To provide clarification of this issue, therefore, this amendment provides that degrees and qualifications which are awarded by the RCSI while it is a recognised college and which are approved by the NUI - this is the net point - shall be degrees and qualifications of the NUI in perpetuity. In other words, one cannot lose one's qualification in mid flight.