Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I felt compelled to raise this very serious issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, given the circumstances I will address in my contribution. It is fair to say that Dundalk Institute of Technology is at a very serious crossroads. The road it takes over the next few weeks and months will determine its prospects and those of the north east for generations to come. In recent weeks, the Minister of State has been quoted as saying that the technological university status reforms, which were commenced by my own party in government, represented "the single most important development in the higher education landscape of recent years and a very significant element of the national research agenda". She went on to state that technological universities will be pivotal in delivering national strategic priorities, including widening access to higher education and increasing regional development and socioeconomic progress. I could not have put it any better but, bizarrely, the leadership and the governing authority of Dundalk Institute of Technology, the third-level institution in my own locality, has yet to make an application or even lay the groundwork through the establishment of a consortium to seek technological university status. More worryingly, it appears that it has no intention of doing so. It looks like it wants to go it alone. It now stands isolated as other institutes of technology have fully embraced the concept of technological university status drawing down millions of euro in dedicated funding to make technological university status happen.

I am extremely ambitious for my own county of Louth and my own region, as are the staff of Dundalk Institute of Technology. This is why Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, members in the institute have voted to stand up and be counted by taking strike action next Tuesday. They are confounded by the dog-in-the-manger and autocratic attitude of the college leadership that has seen technological university status effectively binned against the express wishes of staff. My information is that any prospect of technological university status remaining live has, in essence, been buried as part of the institute's strategic plan review process. Indeed debate has been suppressed in the institute where the question of technological university status has been removed from the agenda of the academic council. That is my understanding. This is an extraordinary intervention at the highest level of the institute and a breach of the academic council's constitution.

It has been speculated that some other alternative is being considered - a poorer alternative to technological university status that has no legislative anchoring or support. Staff want what is best for Dundalk Institute of Technology and that is technological university status. The Minister of State will be told, and I am sure it may appear in her briefing notes, that consultation continues when no meaningful engagement has taken place between TUI members and college authorities regarding technological university status. Real consultation has not taken place either around the proposed development of what is known as a fifth school at the campus. Instead, and true to form, in the college authorities' consideration of the prospect of a fifth school at the college, the public service stability agreement and all industrial relations norms have been set aside because it appears that the ambition of the college authorities is to develop a new school on campus founded on the basis of casual contracts for academic staff, which will inevitably herald a race to the bottom in terms of employment standards and quality assurance.

A total of 99.1% of TUI members at the institute who were balloted for industrial action voted to strike. This illustrates the depth of anger and frustration among academic staff. My view is that staff across the entire institute feel the same. The atmosphere is toxic and poisonous. Staff who want to see the institute meet its potential must be backed. This is a fight for the future of not just Dundalk Institute of Technology but the prospects of my region. The reset button must be pressed. I would be interested in hearing the Minister of State's views on where the institute must go from here. I want to hear her back the TUI members' staff initiative and to back their ambition for the institute to make sure we can deliver technological university status for a very valued institution in our region.