Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. She may or may not be aware that the governing authority of the University of Limerick at a recent meeting failed to appoint a chancellor as set out in legislation. That is a pretty serious situation. To the best of my knowledge it is the first time it has happened in the history of the State and certainly under the new legislation.

There is a requirement in law that two thirds of the governing authority voting must ratify a name that is put forward. It is not as if a number of names are put forward. Only one name is put forward but it requires a two thirds majority of the authority. The candidate put forward failed to reach the two thirds majority. That leaves the university without a chancellor. It is a really important university in the region I come from. About 1,800 people work there and it has more than 17,000 students. It is a university that has grown in stature internationally and in its capacity to meet the needs of students not just in the region but throughout the country. The university has had its issues and difficulties over the years but it has been operating really well. This issue I raise is a blight and stain on the character of the university and is something which needs to be resolved quickly.

I am concerned, based on conversations I have had with people in the university, that there is an effort now being made, which would seem bizarre in the extreme, to revisit the decision that was made by the governing authority, that somehow the same name may be put back before the committee, and that a level of intense lobbying will begin to try to browbeat people who made, in good judgment, a decision not to appoint the individual concerned. There is some history that has been alluded to by a former Member of this House, Shane Ross, about the appointment of the same individual to another board of the State where there was intense lobbying, up to and including telephone calls to the Taoiseach at the time, Leo Varadkar, to secure a particular position for that individual. There is real concern among members of the authority and staff of the university that the same will apply here, that a level of behind-the-scenes lobbying, cajoling and jostling will be deployed to achieve this position for the individual concerned. That would be wrong.

The concern at the moment is that there is still one individual to be appointed externally by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. I understand there is a process under way through the Public Appointments Service, PAS, but the Minister will be the final arbiter of that. The concern of some within the university is that the Minister and Government will be lobbied to appoint somebody who will be favourably disposed towards the person who has already been rejected. That would be wrong. I want an assurance from the Minister of State that will not happen.

A decision has been taken by the governing authority not to appoint the individual concerned. In my view, it would be appropriate that all sides would move on and accept the wishes of the people concerned, and that there would be no attempt to cajole, jostle or try to find another way around this. That would not be in the best interests of the university or of a cohesive approach at board level. The board needs to come together around an individual in whom it has faith and trust for the benefit of the university. The sooner that happens, the better, and I am interested in hearing what the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has to say on this matter.