"A blip in the road."
That's how the president of Waterford Institute of Technology has described the latest developments in the bid for a Technological University for the South East.
It was revealed yesterday that members of the Teachers Union of Ireland in WIT had voted in favour of the memorandum of understanding agreed at the Workplace Relations Commission, while IT Carlow staff members rejected it.
Speaking to Beat news today, Professor Willie Donnelly says it's only a minor setback in the overall process:
"Following the vote, the TUI headquarters reiterated their commitment to the TU, and their commitment to engage in the process to address whatever the outstanding issues are. So, i'm very positive that this will be resolved, and we will move forward"
Professor Donnelly went on to say that it's not appropriate to put a date on when proceedings will be finalised, or when we can expect an update:
"It's an international panel that comes to evaluate the application, and evaluate the institutions. So, we need to be assured that we're prepared for that. So, at this stage talking about dates, and when a panel is going to come, is inappropriate. We need to get to the point where we have the application in, and we move to the next stage".
