Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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273. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide information on the reasons Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology is not participating in the current higher education restructuring discussions with Tallaght and Blanchardstown institutes of technology and DIT; his views on the future of Dun Laoghaire institute in the overall scheme of higher education restructuring. [3921/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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As part of the Landscape Process undertaken by the HEA in 2012, the results of which were submitted to me in a report in March 2012, all higher education institutions were asked to identify their strategic fit within a future higher education system configuration. Institutes of technology that were interested in merging and applying to become technological universities were asked to submit formal expressions of interest in entering that four stage process. Three groups of institutes of technology have chosen that route to date.

An institute's participation in these proposed mergers is entirely voluntary. Dun Laoghaire Institute of Technology have identified their future as a standalone institute of technology as have other institutes of technology. In my response to the HEA report, , I agreed that institutes of technology that wish to remain standalone must participate fully within regional clusters and within thematic clusters where appropriate. Scope for a strong thematic cluster in the creative arts in Dublin was outlined in a report on the same by the HEA and IADT will play a key role in creative parts provision in the region in the coming years.

My full response to the restructuring proposals in the HEA report is published on my Department's website at: