Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the €310 million allocated in the budget to address the infrastructural needs of higher and further education sectors. I ask the Leader to find out where the Technological Universities Bill is and when it will be completed on Committee Stage. The Bill signifies an important step forward for the higher education landscape in Ireland and it provides for much-needed institutes of technology and higher education institutes to remain competitive, which is important for us.

I do not like to be parochial but I will be. Athlone Institute of Technology, AIT, has really welcomed the Technological Universities Bill and it has always been our ambition in Athlone to become a technological university. Athlone has met all the metrics and has been to the forefront of the institute of technology sector with regard to percentages of staff with PhDs, research activity and the diverse nature of our students. The institute performs excellently. I urge the Leader to contact both Ministers' offices and the Department of Education and Skills and to ask them to engage with Athlone Institute of Technology again before the completion of this work. It is vital for us that we are married to the right institute. I do not believe that we should be put together with Dublin Institute of Technology because it is too far away from us geographically. I do not believe that we should be put with Galway, Mayo or Sligo because they are too far away from us. If we have to be married to somebody and cannot be a standalone university, then we should be attached to Maynooth because we complement each other very well and are geographically very close. In the meantime I congratulate AIT for receiving an award from The Irish Timesfor being the best institute of technology.That is a further reason to give it stand-alone status or link it with Maynooth university.