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

The purpose of amendments Nos. 5 to 9 is to amend section 5 of the Bill, which sets out provisions relating to the hearing of an appeal against a decision of the Minister to impose conditions in relation to the use of university authorisation, to refuse to grant university authorisation under section 2 or to withdraw university authorisation under section 4. The Bill provided that the Minister, having regard to certain criteria, would upon receipt of an appeal appoint three to five persons to an appeals board. However, the purpose of the appeals board is to hear an appeal against a decision of the Minister and, therefore, the appointment of the appeals board by the Minister could bring into question the independence of an appeals board appointed in this manner. Amendment No. 5, therefore, provides that the Minister shall, upon receipt of an appeal, request the nomination by Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, of three persons to be appointed to the appeals board, two of whom shall be experts in matters relating to higher education and one of whom shall be either a solicitor or a barrister. This will ensure that appeals are not only fair, but are seen to be fair

Amendments Nos. 6 and 7 provide greater clarity about how an appeals board would conduct an appeal, and provide for the establishment of procedures by an appeals board, the provision of written submissions by parties to the appeal and the holding of hearings, where necessary.

The purpose of amendment No. 8 is to provide that appeals will be determined by an appeals board as soon as practicable after its consideration of an appeal. The Bill provided that appeals will be determined within 60 days of the service of a notice of an appeal on the Minister, and this is considered to be too tight a deadline, given the issues which the appeals board will be required to consider in hearing an appeal.

Finally, amendment No. 9 is a technical amendment which sets out a definition for "Quality and Qualifications Ireland".