Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 September 2023
150. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he can confirm whether approval was sought by TU Dublin for the appointment of a Chief Operations Officer and of a Deputy President and University Registrar in advance of these positions being advertised in June 2019. [41769/23]
View answer151. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he can confirm that his Department had approved the appointments by TU Dublin of a Chief Operations Officer and of a Deputy President/University Registrar in 2019. [41770/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 150 and 151 together.
In October 2019, the President of TU Dublin wrote to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) advising that TU Dublin had instigated a process to put in place the required senior management team. The letter advised that as part of this process, a recruitment competition had been held for Chief Operations Officer and Registrar & Deputy President posts, and two successful candidates had been identified.
It then became apparent that sanction for the appointments had not been sought in line with the requirements of the Technological Universities Act 2018. There followed engagement between DFHERIS, HEA, TU Dublin and DPENDPDR to ensure that the appointments were justified and necessary to support the development of TU Dublin as the first technological university. Sanction for the posts was confirmed in October 2022 following analysis of a submitted business case as the posts were deemed to form an essential part of the overall development of the TU Dublin management structure.
