Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor announced the funding on Friday the 18thof October.
Most of the funding, €11.8 million, will be given to institutes of technology for creation and further expansion.
Minister McHugh said the funding will significantly help the institutions to expand, “TU Dublin was established at the start of this year and is now the largest Higher Education Institution in the State, with over 28,000 students.”
The bulk of the funding going towards the development of technological institutes “in accordance with established government policy in relation to the higher education landscape,” Minister Mitchell O’Connor said.
“The emergence of the technological university sector is the single most important development in the higher education landscape of recent years and a very significant element of the national research agenda,” she also said.
The remaining €2.45 million will go towards other collaborative projects between institutes of technology. These include funding to the Connaught Ulster Alliance consortium (made up of Letterkenny IT, IT Sligo and Galway-Mayo IT), Munster Technological University (comprising of Cork IT and Tralee IT), Techologocal University of South East Ireland (IT Carlow and Waterford IT) and the consortium of Athlone IT and Limerick IT.
All this is in reference to the Ireland 2040 project, first launched in early 2018. The objective of the project is “provide a comprehensive social, economic and cultural infrastructure for all our people to flourish, so that together we can create a better society.”
The institute which will receive the most funding is the Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin), which is the amalgamation of the former Dublin IT, Blanchardstown IT and Tallaght IT. It will receive €3.8 million.
The rest of the €11.8 million funding will be split evenly into €2 million sums will be given to the other universities previously mentioned.
IT Carlow and St. Patrick’s College Carlow will receive the lowest sum of money at €60,000.
In the statement released, it was said that, subject to ongoing monitoring, reporting and evaluations “The funding allocations will be disbursed by the Higher Education Authority subject to requisite conditionality on a case by case project basis.”
Niamh Quinlan
Image Credit: Joy Nwagiriga