Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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398. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if consideration will be given to including Limerick Institute of Technology in plans for the Munster technological university in addition to Cork Institute of Technology and IT Tralee. [13937/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Under the statutory framework provided in the Technological Universities Act 2018, two or more Institutes of Technology (IoTs) may jointly seek TU designation through a prescribed legislative process. Section 29 of the 2018 Act provides for the application jointly by two or more applicant institutes to the Minister of Education and Skills for an order seeking designation as a TU subject to their jointly meeting specified eligibility criteria. Section 38 of the 2018 Act provides that an applicant institute and an established technological university may apply to the Minister for an order.

As autonomous higher education institutions established under statute, it remains a matter for the governing body of an IoT to set the institute’s particular strategic direction within the higher education landscape, including whether or not, and how, to seek TU designation through the prescribed legal processes.

In this context, Athlone Institute of Technology and Limerick Institute of Technology formed a TU development consortium last year. The consortium is understood to have a date in view of October 2020 to make an application seeking TU designation under Section 29 of the 2018 Act.