Deputy Thomas Pringle has received assurances from Minister Simon Harris that the Killybegs campus will play a critical role in Atlantic Technological University.
Speaking in the Dáil, the Independent TD asked the minister how he saw the potential for development of the Killybegs tourism college campus within the remit of the ATU.
He also queried whether or not an application for funding had been made in relation to it.
Deputy Pringle welcomed the minister’s statement that he expected shortly to establish a regional campus support fund.
“Hopefully Killybegs will be in a position to avail of that because I think that is very significant for the smaller campuses of the college,” Deputy Pringle said.
“One of the problems that we had in Killybegs over the years was trying to attract funding as being a very small part of Letterkenny, but it’s more an integral part of the ATU now, which I think is very important. So that regional campus support fund will be very useful and a very welcome development,” he said.
Deputy Pringle raised the issue during oral parliamentary questions to the minister.
He outlined that it is true that Killybegs has the tradition of the culinary arts sector and has a very high reputation going back years.
“I think that needs to be fostered and developed a bit more as well, and that funding could do that,” Deputy Pringle told Minister Harris.
He added that the work of the Killybegs campus within the marine cluster is also very significant.
The deputy said the Killybegs campus also has a very important role in enabling students to return to third-level education, saying he knows people who returned to education 20 to 30 years later.
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