Friday, 8th February 2008

The Munster Regional Council of the Workers’ Party has said that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern should not leave Waterford today (Friday) without giving a clear commitment to granting university status to Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).   {The Taoiseach is in Waterford Friday for a number of engagements}.

The council’s Vice Chairman, Councillor Davy Walsh, said that the people of the south-east had been fobbed off on the issue of university status for too long and that the case for the university for Waterford and the south east was unanswerable. 

Cllr. Walsh raised the matter at the Workers’ Party Munster regional meeting this week and party members from throughout Munster fully supported Waterford’s case.  “The government is afraid to upset the vested interests of academia and its refusal to release the findings of last year’s independent inquiry carried out by Dr. Jim Port who is an expert in this area.  I am now calling on the Taoiseach to release this report without delay”.

The Workers’ Party councillor said that there was total unanimity among all political parties, business interests, the trade union movement and every other major sector throughout the South East in support of the University, which all are agreed will act as a major spur for the South East region.  “The only thing holding it back is the reluctance of the government to upset the elite of the academic world and the obstinance of Minister Mary Hanafin, while the silence of Minister Martin Cullen is deafening”, said Cllr. Walsh.