Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, to the House.

Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this matter. I welcome from the National College of Ireland, Ms Gina Quin, president, and Dr. Deirdre Giblin who are here for this issue. I appreciate the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, is taking this on behalf of another Department. However, as a former education spokesperson, he is familiar with the work of the National College of Ireland, NCI. It was founded in 1951 and at present has 6,500 students. It has a strong commitment to the access agenda in Ireland. On access to higher education, the National College of Ireland is one of our leading institutions. As the Minister of State is aware, it is an independent, not-for-profit institution. As a provider of higher education it offers a wide range of courses, based in the city centre of Dublin. It attracts students from more than 80 countries. It is one of the biggest providers of Springboard courses. The Minister of State is very familiar with the work it does.

I seek an update on the designation of NCI as an institution under the Higher Education Authority Act 2022. When we were debating the Bill in this Chamber in July last year, the Minister, Deputy Harris, said that it was very simple and that this legislation allowed colleges for the first time to put their hands up to say they wish to be designated. The Minister was very open at the time. My question today is very simple. When will the National College of Ireland be designated? What is the process to allow the NCI to be designated? When will that process commence? Will the Minister signal as to when we are going to move on this? The Minister was open to it, both in private discussion and when we were debating the legislation. Everybody agrees that the NCI is a core part of the higher education framework in Ireland. It is something that the institution itself wants to see happen. It wants whatever process needs to commence, to begin. However, we need to know what that process is. Now that the Act is well embedded, we need to know and we need a signal from the Minister as to what is the process. As the Minister himself said, if the hand is up, how can one go towards designation? I would be grateful were the Minister of State to outline today what the Department is saying about that process and a potential timeline.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I am pleased to have the opportunity to provide, on behalf of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, an update on the Higher Education Authority Act 2022 which was only signed by the President on 10 October 2022. The majority of the sections of the Act were commenced on 10 November via SI 554 of 2022. The Higher Education Authority Act 2022 provides for the designation of institutions of higher education where the purpose and intent of this designation system is to protect the reputation and integrity of the higher education sector by bringing together all reputable, high quality higher education providers under the oversight of the Higher Education Authority, HEA. The designation provisions in the Act first set out the automatic designation of institutions that are currently established or recognised under legislation and which were designated under the Higher Education Authority Act 1971. Therefore, those automatically designated are the universities, technological universities, institutes of technology, the National College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

The legislation also provides for an application process to the HEA by not-for-profit or private higher education providers for designation by order of the Minister. These sections in the Act have not yet been commenced as the legislation requires this application process to have regulations in place detailing the conditions to be complied with by a higher education provider before a designation order can be made. The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has started work on the development of these regulations. The completion of the designation regulations and the establishment of a process for designation by order will take further consideration, including consultation with the HEA. Once the regulations are prescribed and the process is fully developed, the relevant provisions of the Higher Education Authority Act will be commenced. It will then be open to the National College of Ireland to apply for designation by order under the legislation.

Institutions, including the National College of Ireland, will be informed once the designation by order process is open for applications by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate he is taking this matter on behalf of another Department. However, it is almost a case of “tell me something that we do not know” because this is very clearly what is laid out within the legislation. What I am asking, and I would ask the Minister of State to take it back to the Minister, Deputy Harris, is that we need to know the timeline for when this will happen. We know what needs to happen. We know that the Minister is committed to it but in that answer, we do not have a clear timeline in place. What the Minister of State is saying is that once the regulations are prescribed and the process is fully developed the relevant provisions will be commenced. The question that I have, which the Minister of State needs to bring back to the Minister, is when will the regulations be prescribed? When will the process be developed? When will the provisions then be commenced? When, as the Minister, Deputy Harris said, can the National College of Ireland hold up its hand and say “we wish to be designated”?

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue and for his contribution. I assure him that departmental officials are working, as I said, and the work has already started to develop the regulations and the process in regard to the designation by order provisions in the Higher Education Authority Act 2022. Once the designation by order regulations and the process are both approved, the designation by order sections of the Higher Education Authority Act will be commenced.The regulations are being written. Once they are finalised the legislation can be commenced, and then those regulations can come into effect by ministerial order.

The National College of Ireland and other institutions will be informed at that time of the application process relating to designation. It will be open to them to apply for designation under the legislation. Any application received by the National College of Ireland will be assessed in accordance with the designation-by-order regulations and the process.