Technological Universities
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Donna McGettigan (SF), Clare

I am not sure if the Minister is familiar with the recent report published by two Munster Technological University researchers. When asked if Irish TUs are failing, they concluded that the Irish TU project has been characterised by financial pressure, the death of regional provision in higher education, mission drift and confused policymaking, and that it has failed to meet any key targets. I acknowledge a lot of this was carried out before the Department of further and higher education was even established but it is still important to reflect on the success or failure of the concept.
Reading the report, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, was set on forcing IoT mergers through impoverishment of smaller institutions, and that there was a drop of 38% in State funding. Academic staff issues were largely ignored. There was very little meaningful engagement. In their applications for TU designation, all consortia stated that they expected increased student numbers and all except Technological University Dublin, TUD, stated that they expected an extra increase over the short term due to TU designation but this bounce never came to pass.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02