Madam, - Your Editorial of April 5th is somewhat more restrained than the recent vituperative rant by Dr Ed Walsh (Education Today, March 25th), but it falls victim to the same fallacies.
It is simply not correct to say the south-east is the only major region without a university. The National Spatial Strategy designated eight national-level gateways, including Dundalk, Sligo, Waterford, Letterkenny/Derry and the nexus of Athlone/Tullamore/Mullingar. While Waterford is entitled to make a rational case for a university, there are others who must surely be entitled to the same opportunity. Dr Walsh, with characteristic zeal, urges the Government to bolt the door securely against the other institutes of technology after his favoured institution has passed through. A more blatant example of special pleading would be hard to imagine.
Your Editorial, drawing on the recent Port report, notes that Waterford has the "appropriate governance and strategic capability required for a university". This comes as no surprise to those with experience of the institutes of technology. Having worked for over 35 years in the sector (and for many years in Cork Institute of Technology), I can claim that experience at first hand. The institutes have progressed rapidly in scale and in sophistication - to the extent that many, including CIT have the authority to award their own research PhDs. It was therefore galling to read Dr Walsh's patronising and inaccurate references to the sector as a whole and to CIT in particular.
You are right to say the decision facing the Government and Minister Hanafin is a complex one. This is clear to anyone reading the Port Report. Facile "solutions", such as ring-fencing a possible WIT redesignation, will not work, since they do not address the equally valid arguments of other regions and institutions. It would be a pity if The Irish Timeswere to take its lead from Ed Walsh. - Yours, etc,
EDMOND RIORDAN, Cork.