Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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87. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will report on the development of the Atlantic technological university; and the level of Exchequer funding that will be provided in 2022 for this technological university. [58656/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On 28 October, I announced that I was granting TU designation to the CUA consortium of GMIT, IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT. In this context, expressions of interest are being sought by my Department in a public process launched last week for key posts on the TU’s first governing body including that of chairperson. An open public process has also been launched by the applicant institutes seeking expressions of interest in the post of first president of the new TU.

On 23 November, I announced that the name agreed by the applicant institutes for the new Technological University for the West and North West region being established next year shall be the Atlantic Technological University (Ollscoil Teicheolaíochta an Atlantaigh). The name was chosen by the applicant institutes following a comprehensive survey commissioned by them of relevant internal and external stakeholders including most notably the students and staff of the three Institutes. This name has the full support of all three governing bodies.

Subject to the drafting of the requisite Ministerial order under the Technological Universities Act 2018 by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, its laying before and approval by resolution by each House of the Oireachtas, it is proposed that the date on which the three Institutes will be formally dissolved and the Atlantic Technological University established in their place shall be the 1 April 2022. This means that students of the current three Institutes who graduate in this academic year of 2021/2022 and henceforth in the West and North West will do so with university qualifications.

On foot of the TURN report Government announced in Budget 2020 the provision of €90 million over the next three years under a TU Transformation Fund to support Institutes of Technology to jointly achieve TU designation and to further the advancement of established TUs. This dedicated funding is additional to the €31 million in Exchequer funding invested in TU development and progression since 2013. My department has secured a further €40 million in TU oriented funding under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. My department and the Higher Education Authority are also working to secure additional TU research funding under the European Regional Development Fund from next year.

To date the consortium of GMIT, IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT has received almost €16 million to advance its TU proposals. The HEA meets regularly with the fund recipients and consults at a sectoral level via the TU Research Network (TURN), to oversee the use of the fund and to best serve the needs of each institution or consortia at its current stage in the TU trajectory.

Considerable progress has been made towards the objectives of the fund since initial disbursements were made in 2020, as evidenced by the robust monitoring systems put in place to track progress. The last round of funding allocations was determined on the basis of assessed capacity and progress evidenced in meeting the objectives and ambitions outlined in the TURN Report. In this context, the HEA will issue a funding call in 2022 to each institution or consortia.