Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that the Minister has taken on some of the feedback from this House. We had an extensive discussion on the Bill in this House both on Committee and Report Stages. The Fianna Fáil Senators, Sinn Féin Senators and university Senators all spoke against the Bill and we voted against the legislation when it left this House because we had concerns about the procedure that is being set up in respect of allowing a university to use the name of a university abroad when it does not qualify for university status internally. I acknowledge that the Minister has brought forward some amendments to deal with the process and to improve it, but I still have problems in principle with the proposition in the Bill.

It is duplicitous to allow an institution to use a designation abroad that it is not entitled to use in the State. I accept that there are issues for our non-university third level institutions in terms of marketing themselves abroad and I accept that they are often competing against far inferior institutions that can carry the name of university. I accept that is unfair and that there is an issue here, but I do not think this is the best way to go about it. I also do not accept that RCSI is the only institution in that situation. Many of our institutes of technology, which are fantastic and superior to those that might describe themselves as universities in other countries, have the same issue in terms of marketing themselves abroad and yet, the RCSI is the only institution that fulfils the criteria set out in the Bill. There are better ways of addressing the genuine concerns about marketing, not least by ensuring full implementation of the strategy set out by the last Government for the internationalisation of Irish education and for marketing ourselves more coherently and strongly abroad. There is no doubt that there is a market that we have not tapped into sufficiently, but this legislation is not the best way to address it.