Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Cullinane for raising this issue. It is a high priority for the Government. We are implementing a higher education reform programme that will significantly enhance the quality of higher education for our country and our region. I welcome Senator Cullinane's support for the process. There are no dark forces at work or games being played on this issue within the Department and the chairperson decided himself to resign. I acknowledge fully the work he has done over the years but he felt it was appropriate that someone else would carry the baton, as it were, from this point on.

There is not some kind of status difference between a technological university and the universities currently in existence. They are all equally universities. It is full university status that is being worked towards. An important element of the programme of reform is the consolidation of the technological sector, helping to create new multi-campus technological universities of significant scale and strength, where merging groups of institutes reach a high performance bar before attaining this new status. Three consortiums are currently engaged in that process. Two of them, in Dublin and Munster, are significantly advanced and submitted detailed merger plans to the HEA earlier this summer. This Government is committed to the creation of a multi-campus technological university for the south east as outlined in the programme for Government. The process and criteria to attain this new status were published in early 2012. It appeared that, until recently, both institutions were committed to delivering a business plan for their joint future by the end of this year.

As the Senator is aware, in recent weeks Waterford IT unilaterally announced that it was suspending moves towards a merger with IT Carlow, which could lead to the creation of a technological university in the south east. This development is regrettable and I am taking immediate steps to ensure that momentum is re-established and that the south east region can benefit from the economic and social dividend which I believe the technological university model can deliver.

I announced yesterday a new process to reinvigorate the project of a technological university for the south east. I have appointed Mr. Michael Kelly to lead a process of consultation with the governing bodies, staff and students in Waterford Institute of Technology and Carlow Institute of Technology in order to develop a shared vision for a technological university in the south east. As a former chairman of the Higher Education Authority, Mr. Kelly is very well known within the sector. He has also played a leading role chairing the consortium which is seeking to establish a technological university in the Dublin region and has an in-depth knowledge of what is needed to create such an institution. Mr. Kelly will also be asked to report on the best structure to implement the project and the potential timescale. He will report to me in early January.

I have also requested that Mr. Kelly broaden the consultation to ensure that the voice of other social and economic partners in the south east feed into the process. That would include Senator Cullinane, as a representative for the area. We firmly believe that multi-campus technological universities will make a positive contribution to third level education in Ireland and to the regions.

The Senator asked me about the timeframe. I am expecting Mr. Kelly will be able to give me a potential timescale in early January, but this process has to get back on track. Mr. Kelly has a relatively short timeframe in which he has to report and then we will move forward with the process. One of the reasons it has taken so long is because there have been problems between the two institutions. We have to get them together, working on the same track. There is no reason that Waterford and the south east cannot have a university in a relatively short space of time. I cannot give Senator Cullinane an exact timescale at this stage.