Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We need to know if this is, in fact, a debate on legislation. There are two Houses dealing with legislation in the Oireachtas and they each have a role and make a contribution. I would like to see amendment No. 19 accepted. One could ask why a limit of four should be put on this but others could say each academic council should have a minimum of two and be able to determine its own number. That is something we can examine on Report Stage. It is hard to see how we would not accept a minimum of one student, nominated by the student union in accordance with its own procedures, as specified in amendment No. 20. I urge colleagues across the House, including those in Fianna Fáil, to say that surely, as representatives of the party in this House, there should be the right to support and put forward constructive proposals. Amendments Nos. 32 and 38 make relevant changes to the Dublin Institute of Technology Act 1992 and the Regional Technical Colleges Act 1992 to ensure there is consistency in the question of student representation on academic councils.

The Minister of State may say she does not wish to intervene with the inner workings of the technological universities and we must trust our college administrations not to exclude students. However, this Bill sets forth the procedures, practice, standards and expectations. It would be remiss if we let this Bill through without a proper statutory provision. Today, we are allowing that a worst-case scenario would never arise. Although it would not be the intention of any of the institutions to allow it to arise and many of them deeply value student participation on academic councils, we should not allow the possibility of no student representation at all on the academic councils of our universities. I ask the Minister of State to show that she is willing to engage on this and be true to even her own statements on Second Stage by indicating she is able to engage with these proposals.