I move that the Committee agree with the Seanad in amendment No. 1:
Section 1: in lines 16 to 23, all words from and including "any" in line 16 to the end of the section deleted and the following substituted:
"(a) a university or university college in respect of its courses which are of degree standard, or
(b) any other institution of higher education for the time being approved by the Minister for the purposes of this Act, either generally or in relation to any particular grant or class of grants under section 2 of this Act, in so far as that institution provides courses which in the opinion of the Minister are equivalent to university degree courses."
This Bill has come from the Seanad with this very small amendment to section 1 which clarifies the section. There is nothing more to it than that. It is a question of ensuring that the institution which the Minister can deem to be equivalent to a university would be deemed to be a university for the purpose of the Act. Academic persons in the Seanad thought there might be a connotation in the Bill as drafted that the Minister was taking power to himself to denote a university. We are just confining this decision of the Minister.
