Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am going through the different points that Senators have made. Similarly, in section 82(5) of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012, when referring to charters, it says, "In preparing a charter, the governing body of an Institute of Technology shall consult, in such manner as the governing body thinks appropriate, with the academic council ... and other staff of the Institute, any recognised trade union or staff association, and any recognised student union or other student representative body." In addition, trade unions and staff associations are recognised by the Technological Universities Bill in section 9(5)(b) in the context of the procedures relating to the resolution of disputes. It is clear there must be mutual co-operation between the technological university and the students' union, and unless both recognise each other, there can be no dialogue or productive interaction. It is in this sense that the concept of recognition pertains.

The recognition by mutual parties must also prevent the unworkable and unwanted situation which could occur if there was a plethora of single-issue bodies purporting to represent student concerns. Even for a handful of students to require constant interaction by the technological university with such bodies would be to the detriment of the representation of all concerns of students by the recognised students' union.

The definition in the Bill also includes a reference to other student representative bodies which ensures the definition also includes the possibility of there being more than one student representative body in the institution in question such as a students' union representing postgraduates.

In terms of the proposed definition, the entire statement relates to the independence of students' unions with no corresponding insertions relating to either governance or accountability for the funding that is channelled to the students' union. We cannot have a situation whereby there is not an appropriate balance between autonomy and accountability, particularly when we are seeking to strengthen the governance and accountability framework for higher education institutions. It is for these reasons I cannot accept these amendments.