Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1839. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will report on the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 proposed consolidation and mergers of institutes of technology to ‘improve resource efficiency, by taking advantage of economies of scale and opportunities for sharing services’ given the circumstances (details supplied); if his Department approved this significant increase in salary costs for non-academic staff; and the reason the economies of scale and efficiencies derived from sharing services envisaged in the national strategy were not achieved in TU Dublin. [57250/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 recommended significant reform of the higher education landscape, and in particular the consolidation of Institutes of Technology to become new step-change higher education institutions with expanded missions to better meet regional and national needs.The subsequent merging of number of Institutes of Technology since 2019 is creating institutions of sufficient size, capacity and critical mass to maximise previously dispersed strengths and attract greater investment for the regions. The benefits of becoming a successful TU are significant in terms of increased national reach, international recognition, research capacity building, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attraction, skills retention and creation, regional development, enhanced staff and student experience and opportunities, enhanced regional development and socio-economic progression. Increased management and academic teams facilitated by the merger of institutions increase institutional capacity and facilitate enhanced performance in areas such as the winning of research funding. Government has worked to align the capital investment plans for the next decade to the most important strategic challenges currently faced, with higher education a key catalyst to advancing regional development and attracting investment both indigenous investment and FDI. In this context TUs represent a unique model for bringing together teaching and learning excellence, research aligned with enterprise and entrepreneurship, and locally rooted engagement with stakeholders and communities.In terms of economies of scale and sharing professional services the Deputy will I trust understand that while unified services continue to be rolled out across TU Dublin’s three campuses, it will take some time for the totality of unified shared services to be achieved across what is one of the largest, if not the largest, unified higher education institution in the state. However, significant progress continues to be made and since coming into being TU Dublin has established a single University Finance system which went live in 2021, a single University HR/Payroll system which went live in 2022 and the university continues to amend and enhance the processes supporting these two systems. TU Dublin also has a programme of establishing integrated university wide technology services being rolled out, some of which are completed and some ongoing. It has a cross-university library access system for all library users as well as a project ongoing since early 2023 to deliver a new unified student record management system for the university rather than continuing to operate on three separate systems. Finally, all professional service functions have been re-organised to be cross-university as opposed to campus specific service providers to the students and staff.

In addition, a fundamental overhaul of key organisational and staffing requirements includes consideration by the Government and the entirety of the TU sector of the OECD review of 16 December 2022 in relation to academic career paths, contracts and organisation in Irish TUs with the aim of ensuring that TUs are fully fit for purpose in these areas in order to assist in the delivery of national strategic priorities and individual regional missions of the institutions. The OECD note in this report the distinct differences in the organisation of administrative and professional support functions between international benchmark institutions, and Ireland's emerging TUs. It notes the contrasts in ratios of professional administrative staff to academic staff. Over time the strengths of TUs are becoming ever more evident as they further develop and become more embedded as unified entities across multi-campuses in their regions. TUs currently produce 2 in every 5 graduates in Ireland and are responsible for 51% of all graduates in STEM. More than 3 out of every 4 part-time STEM students are registered in a TU. TU Dublin provides 17% of STEM, 14% of business and 20% of services sector national provision as well as 20% of the national craft apprentice cohort.Legislatively prescribed budgeting provisions for TUs are set out in section 20 of the Technological Universities Act 2018. Similarly, staffing provisions including approval and sanctioning requirements are set out in section 14 of the 2018 Act.Staff appointments up to mid-ranking levels and encompassing certain senior posts at appropriate pre-existing grades in TUs, in particular posts falling outside the core senior university executive team, are matters for the institutes themselves in the first instance, subject to the parameters of the Employment Control Framework and public sector pay policy.Section 22 of the 2018 Act requires all TUs to furnish annual accounts for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General and for those accounts and the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1840. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to confirm what reserves TU Dublin holds; how much of these reserves are unencumbered (details supplied); and the actual reserves TU Dublin holds that can be used to offset the deficit. [57251/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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TU Dublin holds €559.154 Million reserves (per the audited Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as at 31 August 2022). €262.384 Million of these reserves are unrestricted reserves, including capital development reserve of €37.372 Million.The actual reserves that TU Dublin holds that can be used to offset the deficit is €224.912 Million, this being the income and expenditure reserve (per audited Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as at 31 August 2022).

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1841. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason he sanctioned retrospectively the appointment of a Chief Operations Officer and of a Deputy President and Registrar at TU Dublin in October 2022, given that he must have been aware at the time of the €10 million increase in salary costs for non-academic roles in the university, the decline in market share leading to a decrease in funding and given as he confirmed previously the appointments breached the Technological Universities Act 2018. [57252/23]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1842. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if, in light of his admission that the Technological Universities Act 2018 was breached by the appointment of the Chief Operating Officer and of the Deputy President and Registrar in October 2019 at TU Dublin, he will outline what actions his Department took as a response to this breach of the Act. [57253/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1841 and 1842 together.

In October 2019, the President of TU Dublin wrote to the Higher Education Authority advising that TU Dublin had instigated an open recruitment process for elements of their required senior management team and that suitable candidates for the posts of Chief Operating Officer and Registrar and Deputy President had been identified.

On receipt of the information from the Higher Education Authority, also in October 2019, my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery & Reform, examined the submitted business cases. It was determined that the posts were an essential part of the overall development of the TU Dublin management structure.

As such, and in accordance with the terms of the Technological Universities Act, Ministerial approval and consents were obtained for the appointments in October 2022. Sanction for the posts was confirmed to TU Dublin that same month. Although my Department accepts that TU Dublin were premature in advertising the posts, it is important to stress that all the necessary approvals and consents required under the Act were obtained prior to the confirmation of the appointments and at no point was there any breach of public sector pay policy.