It is firm language. I have also received advice from the Attorney General and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. I accept the seriousness of the issue the Senator is raising. That advice is in line with the response I have just given. The legal advice is that it is not a substantive provision conferring any new power on a Government or a Minister but rather it is reporting against powers that already exist, either in legislation or in statute. I can only share with the Senator the legal advice.

I could adopt a certain approach and say we do not share legal advice. I am trying to be transparent with the House. I have also sought legal advice on the 11 separate amendments relating to institutions of higher education having systems, procedures and processes in place to implement and report compliance with policies. Three of the proposed amendments refer to statutory provisions, along with the codes and guidelines. Apart from the fact that the intention is that the documents are non-statutory ones, and I acce…

I have great time for Senator Clonan. Disagreement is not a bad thing but I do fundamentally disagree with him on this point. I ask people to accept my bona fides that we are going to bring forward legislation. Nobody in this House has bothered to do that in the past. I do not mean the Members of this Oireachtas and I do not say that about anybody in this House. We, as an Oireachtas, have never done this before. We have never before brought forward a students union Bill. I am saying we should do that and get it rig…

It does, but the Universities Act does not. Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin are not governed to that effect. The panel the Senator represents in this House is not governed by the Technological Universities Act. It stands over a situation where one must be an elected officer of a students union. Many students who are delighted to be members of students unions and delighted to vote for the officers of the students union would also like to have a role in representation. Many officers would also li…

I thank the Deputy. She is correct that I was very concerned to hear about this situation. It relates to a situation where a QQI-accredited programme is still a valid programme but CORU, the independent regulator, has expressed concerns about its ability to put the students on the register. My understanding is that individual meetings were to take place between the college and students to look at the options. There were also refunds on the table. The Deputy is correct that people being able to progress their career…

I thank my colleague for raising this important matter, not only today in Seanad Éireann but also almost daily. I am aware of his genuine, deep commitment to and understanding of the importance of a university for Waterford in the south east in terms of educational access, economic investment, balanced regional development and ensuring Waterford can harness and reach its incredible full potential. I thank him so much. I really enjoyed being in what is now SETU with the Senator on designation day. I could sense genu…

I thank Senator Cummins. It is worthwhile to outline the progress that has been made with the campus expansion because sometimes that can be overlooked. Five steps have had to be gone through. The first step involved a recognition by myself, by my Department and by the Government, in agreeing with the position of the Senator and other Oireachtas colleagues, that we needed to expand the footprint in Waterford. That step is in place. Setting aside funding to make that happen is in place. The second step was the busin…

I thank Senators for engaging. I join with Senator Malcolm Byrne in thanking my officials for also engaging. There has been engagement between Committee and Report Stages. I acknowledge the good faith with which Senators have engaged and thank them for it. This is an issue we have been grappling with, particularly in view of the fact that the purpose of the Bill is to strengthen the role of students and student engagement, to clarify opportunities for engagement and to give the HEA teeth where any issue regarding s…

That is partially the case. It is our view, based on the legal advice we have, that the definition to be inserted in this legislation is too narrow compared with the existing definition. As the Senator will be aware, the Universities Act, the Technological Universities Act, the National College of Art and Design Act and the Institutes of Technology Act will travel with this legislation and a broader definition is already outlined, so that is the first challenge. The second challenge, which relates to a legal point …

I thank the Senator. I got the distinct impression in the other House when we made additions to the legislation in relation to environmental sustainability and climate that there was a view we had strengthened the legislation. I do not generally name-check colleagues but Deputy Ó Cathasaigh did significant work on this on Committee Stage to get it to a better place than I concede it was at when the Bill was published. Amendment No. 2 proposes to include a definition of the United Nations sustainable development goa…

That was a lengthy list of amendments. I thank the Senators for taking me through the amendments. I will start on research while it is fresh in my mind. I have announced our intention to bring forward a research Bill close to January 2023. That will be a really important opportunity. It will be the first time that the State will introduce stand-alone legislation relating to research. There will be an opportunity in that legislation to explore public-public partnerships and some of the broad and legitimate issues Se…

The Deputy is trying to dissolve the Dáil.

It is an elongated way of getting to the sound bite.

Why did they not form a Government?

They did not have the numbers.

Let her finish. We would like to hear it. We might hear the plan.

Time for a trip to Australia.

Send them our best in Australia. Tell them we are asking for them down under, at €3,000 a dinner.

I assure Senator Craughwell that one of the great strengths of our sector is that there is regular, open, critical comment and dissenting views. It is one of the very healthy things about higher education and the university sector. Whether one is a university president, trade union representative or student union representative, it is a very can-do and collaborative sector, but it is also very vocal. It is a sector that quite rightly feels free to express its opinion in every and any guise. That is appropriate. It …

That is true.