THE Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, complained yesterday that her Christmas post had been "mangled" by submissions on the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Ms Breathnach was justifying her decision not to extend university status to the DIT under the universities Bill, as the Dail Select Committee on Social Affairs met for the first time to consider the proposed legislation.
Earlier, the Fianna Fail spokesman on education, Mr Micheal Martin, had questioned why the DIT was excluded from the Bill. Fianna Fail had proposed an amendment to have the DIT included in the Bill's provisions and disputed the appropriateness, under the circumstances, of the Bill's title in Section 1 of the legislation.
Mr Martin argued that the DIT was operating in a framework which was "too restrictive" and remained under "the stranglehold of the Minister and Government".
He said Ms Breathnach had been forced to give degree-awarding status to the DIT because of the pressure put on her by parents, students and the DIT administration.
Ms Breathnach said that deputies should not try to read her mind since they "invariably" got it wrong. "We wouldn't try to read your mind, you change it that often," Ms Mary Coughlan (Fianna Fail) responded. Ms Breathnach said she had decided to extend degree-awarding status to the DIT before she began to receive submissions on university status.
Her use of the word "mangled" was criticised by Mr Martin and Mrs Ma ire Geoghegan-Quinn (Fianna Fail). Section 1 of the Bill was subsequently carried by 12 votes to nine.
Ms Helen Keogh (Progressive Democrats) said it was "quite extraordinary" that the Minister should have tabled 106 amendments to her Bill. She argued that the Minister had done a volte-face on her "heavy-handed, bureaucratic, centralist" approach to the universities because the Bill was facing "potential defeat" in the Seanad.
Ms Breathnach said she would make "no apologies" for the number of amendments and pointed to the large numbers of amendments made to previous education legislation.
A PD amendment, which would have required the Minister to consult the universities before setting a date to bring the Act into power, was not carried. Technical amendments relating to wording were passed. The committee will meet again on January 23rd.