Third Level Education
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

I was delighted to recently announce this partnership and my support for it. I brought the proposal to the Government to receive all-of-government support and endorsement for it. It is a very exciting and historic proposal. This will be the first all-island university, which speaks to many of our aspirations about our shared island and all-island dimensions. It is a programme that will enhance both DkIT and Queen's University. The partnership will include an integration of DkIT within the academic framework of Queen's University, ensuring that students studying in Dundalk will graduate with a Queen's University award. It also envisages a joint research and innovation centre on the Dundalk campus, which will be a close collaboration with enterprise and industry as part of a research and industry foundational partnership.
It will further strengthen regional development in the north east and along the Dublin-Belfast corridor. It also places a full university education within reach of students in the north east, perhaps filling a gap that may have existed previously between Dublin and Belfast. With this partnership, university education will be accessible and available to students in Dundalk. Of course, student mobility skills development and shared learning are part of that as well.
It is worth noting that the proposal will see DkIT, while becoming a college of Queen's University, remain an autonomous, self-governing university college and retain its rights. It is part of a new model within the Irish higher education landscape. It is a slightly different model from other technological universities and my expectation is it will require legislation. I hope the Deputy and his party will support that, as I imagine they will, and that others in the House will support it too. There is a very exciting and ambitious timetable for it, which I certainly intend to do my best to work with.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11