Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Dublin consortium consisting of the Dublin Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and Institute of Technology Tallaght, submitted a plan towards merger to the Higher Education Authority in 2014. This was assessed by an international expert panel appointed by the HEA and found to be on a clear trajectory to meet the very robust performance and quality criteria that have been set down for merging institutes who wish to apply for the new technological university status.

This concluded stage 3 of the 4-stage process towards designation as a technological universities for the Dublin consortium. The governing bodies involved reaffirmed their decision to merge and seek Technological University designation and have continued to work towards that goal.

The Technological Universities Bill, which will provide for the merger of consortiums of institutes of technology, including the Dublin consortium, is at an advanced stage of drafting and I hope to be in a position to publish the Bill in the coming weeks. Once the Bill has been passed by the Oireachtas this would allow for a merger of the Dublin consortium to take place.