Seanad debates

Thursday, 8 March 2018

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Grace O'SullivanGrace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I would like the Minister of State to accept this amendment to give the evaluation panel real teeth. As the Bill is worded, an evaluating panel of experts has no power to properly evaluate the institution in the round. It is more a spreadsheet exercise. If an applying institution meets the technical criteria the panel will have to make a positive finding. Why is the Minister going to the trouble of convening a panel of experts if it has no power to explore the institution other than auditing a few select metrics? This amendment establishes the technical criteria as the indicative standard but tasks the complying consortium with going further, being ambitious and taking on the challenge of truly creating a new university in more than name.

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